Moonaadem – Douleur de renaitre
Moonaadem – Douleur de renaitre
Self-Released
08/09/23
Running time 43:21
Review by Oli Gonzalez
8/10
“Not another one man black metal project” was my initial gut reaction when I first encountered the name Moonaadem. Some ‘bands’ who meet this description were likely born out of lockdown induced boredom, and sound like they’ve been recorded with a baked potato in their basement! However, this certainly WAS NOT the case with Marwan Antonios, mastermind and creative genius behind Moonaadem. Simply, I was very impressed with this 8 track album, “Douleur de renaitre”. I don’t speak French but without Googling, I think it means pain of …erm, nature?
Language barriers aside, Moonaadem prides himself on writing music that can “dive deep into the universally relatable human experience”. I feel as though his music certainly achieves that and transcends said language barriers. Especially with the array of traditional black metal riffs and structures, combined with ambient and atmospheric textures, which I felt really added his unique take on the genre. I found the music to be oddly relaxed and melodic, yet straight up ferocious at times. I think this is best summed up in the track ‘Acceptation’. The song is dominated by hypnotic riffs and rhythms, luring you into a false sense of security before washing over you like a blackened wave. All before switching suddenly to a very appealing acoustic outro; respite from this intensity. ‘Leuer de demain’ follows a similar pattern, switching seamlessly between ferocious black metal intensity to chilled ambient vibes.
It’s this choice of song structure that for me sets it apart from other black metal records. Some think that black metal is just all about 200bpm blast beats and tremolo picked riffs. Moonaadem demonstrates that he’s more than capable of laying down a solid groove and rhythm in ‘Louve’. In fact, I’m gently banging my head along to it as I’m typing this right now! For all the cool aspects, there’s one criticism though; the vocals. They lacked some diction and enunciation, to the point where I wasn’t sure if he was singing in French or English. This made it more difficult for me to connect with the album.
Production wise, much better than I had anticipated. Far beyond the standard of most solo efforts. It has that raw, deliberately retrograde style of production whilst still sounding clean and polished, like all good black metal records. Maybe there’s that bit of extra proverbial magic to take it from being a good album to an excellent album, but for a solo effort this is solid.
So after listening to the album, I decided to actually check Google translate to see what ‘Douleur de renaitre’ actually means in English. Apparently, pain of being reborn! This album was a delight to listen to, anything but painful. My faith in solo projects is now reborn and I should be more open minded to the possibilities of individual creativity.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Givre
02. Regarde moi exil
03. Louve
04. Lueur de demain
05. Lointaine tourmante
06. Douleur de renaitre
07. Acceptation
08. Marche, Aliéné
LINE-UP:
Marwan Antonios: All instruments, vocals & production
LINKS:
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