Album review: Moodring – Stargazer

It’s a feeling like no other when a new band comes along with a debut where you can tell right away that their music is a craft, a true passion and a core expression for them. That’s exactly what can be felt in Moodring’s debut. This record is hefty from the get-go and warps from deft vocals to crunching, distorted soundscapes with ease, feeling like a cool wave of water lapping over you.

An instrumental intro How To Leave Painlessly creates a celestial welcome before slithering into almighty opener Disintegrate. With its blaring guitars and cluggy bass work it swoops and swings between scratchy riffs and delicious vocal melodies. ‘Let's make it up, we'll play pretend, you’re dying in my dreams’, Hunter Young serenades in this anthemic ballad of letting go and embracing loss.

And whilst rock often covers mental health, addiction and other inner battles, we don’t often hear enough on sexual empowerment, but SYNC.wav brings just that. It lathers up distant vocal cries and growls with circular, empowered riffs in a sexed-up, modern rock treasure. It’s Deftones-eque eerie yet with a fresh makeover, and it's exciting to see that kind of expression in heavy music. Novocaine Bones is a standout for its softer offerings, with cymbals that brush up against the bass and guitar, it’s intricately designed to be both coy and violent.

Following on from their self-released EP, Stargazer is a triumphant first-offering from Moodring – it’s nose scrunching, lip curling and neck snapping goodness. It's filthy and clunky in all the right places, with instrumentation that quietly rages around vivacious vocal work and then spews up violently beautiful breakdowns with gritty guitar and strapping screams.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Deftones, Loathe, Palm Reader

Stargazer is released on June 10 via UNFD