Year: 2025
Label: Bestial Burst

Famously, the old saying proclaims that third time’s the charm. Finnish black metal trio Moon Oracle prove that with their third album. In our reviews of their two earlier albums (here and here) we applauded the unique sound and style of the project, but also noted some roughness around the edges. Particularly so on the debut album, Muse Of The Nightside.

Now, on the third album, it feels like whatever conceptual rough edges remained, have virtually completely vanished. This is not to say Guardians Of The Lunar Spheres sees Moon Oracle become musically polished. The opposite is true: there’s plenty of jagged edges here musically. But as far as the shape of the music is concerned, this time around all pieces well and truly fall into place.

As before, Moon Oracle’s style of black metal is doom-laden, downtuned and predominantly slow. By now, there’s no two minds about it: Guardians Of The Lunar Spheres can safely be called doom/black metal. But throw away any notions of funeral-tinged black metal a’la Nortt. Instead, Moon Oracle cast their eyes firmly to the past.

Old school is definitely an apt term to throw around here. And I’d even go further, and use the word primordial. Moon Oracle’s dark, slow, doom-y and heavy black metal harks back to primogenitors such as Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost. Take that old, genre defining material, tune it down and slow it to a lurch, and you start approaching Moon Oracle’s sound.

I’m going to slightly contradict myself next. In a way, I’m loath to dub Moon Oracle “doom/black metal”, because that makes it sound like the music is some kind of genre hybrid mutant. Pentagram with black metal vocals or something like that. And that’s just not true.

So instead of anything of the kind, think of old, early death/doom. Think of Cianide’s A Descent Into Hell. Think of Winter. Think of how those bands took their Celtic Frost informed death metal, slowed it down, tuned it down and just in general made it heavy like tungsten. It became “doom” almost incidentally; not as a deliberate attempt to fuse two genres of music. That it became “doom” was a logical outcome of the direction, but the evolution was still entirely original.

Next, reimagine the above in a black metal context, and you arrive at Guardians Of The Lunar Spheres. What fast bursts there were on the earlier albums have been abandoned entirely. The riffing shies away from cliché tremolo picking and sawing. Instead, they firmly plant themselves in mid-tempo territory, focusing on straightforward heaviness and, occasionally, a somewhat surprising groove given the black metal context. The genealogy can be heard in them: these riffs stem from the shared DNA of all metal music.

The pitch-black, sinister atmosphere is completed by Harald Mentor’s vocals. As before, they are a primitive, rough and gruff bark. Their rawness is accentuated by their dry tone – again, I am drawn to compare them to the vocals on Darkthrone’s iconic Panzerfaust. Sparsely used, atmospheric synths add a layer of deeply esoteric mystery to the music. Which is only apt, considering the esoteric nature of the lyrics.

To reiterate: Moon Oracle have reached a new level of completeness in their sound. All excess has been shed. What remains is a concise and focused sound, something that especially in the landscape of modern black metal is quite unique. There simply aren’t bands sounding like this today. By shedding the remaining elements of superficial black metal stylings without sacrificing their essentially black metal quintessence, Moon Oracle have stepped into a realm of their own.

Combining the unique sound with imagery and lyrics steeped deep in left-hand occultism and esoteric traditions, Guardians Of The Lunar Spheres constitutes a powerfully original work. At the same time, it acknowledges and honours Moon Oracle’s roots and the originators of the genre.

Guardians Of The Lunar Spheres is quite clearly Moon Oracle’s strongest offering to date. Like Ophidian Glare before it, it builds on earlier works, purifying and condensing the vision ever more. Excess is cut off, dead weight thrown off. What remains is a primitive, raw, sinister and potent piece of primordial black metal. Most likely not everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s hardly a goal in itself for music as esoteric as this.

Visit Moon Oracle on Bandcamp