Artist: Moon Oracle
Country: Finland
Label: Bestial Burst
Formats: CD
Year: 2025
With only a few years behind them as a band, the trio that forms Moon Oracle is not only a seasoned company with precious experience in bands such as Ride For Revenge, Blood Red Fog, Flooded Church Of Asmodeus, Pantheon Of Blood and Incriminated, especially in this configuration, the three musicians show stunning musical growth. None of the previously released material was easy to digest or typical Black Metal for the masses, instead the band took audible pride in incorporating many doomy aspects in their stripped-down musical recipe. As a result, all subsequent releases are little pieces of work that need a little time to let it sink in. The band’s latest offering, ‘Guardians Of The Lunar Spheres’ is no exception to that trend.
In fact, this third album is pushing things to further extremes when it comes to their intricate ways of weaving Doom Metal and Black Metal together in a bareboned frame of almost Ildjarnian grandeur. In a previous review on their material I mentioned that Moon Oracle isn’t quite your typical Finnish Black Metal band, and after having heard ‘Guardians Of The Lunar Spheres’ a couple of times, that appears all the more true. There still is a evident Black Metal fundament on which the band builds their dark art, but it is also clear that Doom Metal is getting an increasingly more prominent place in the mix.
So, while the band by no means ever was a standard Finnish Black Metal band, by now it wouldn’t be too far fetched to state that Moon Oracle is adding lots of rather typical Finnish Doom Metal to their formula. Finland has a large and influential Doom Metal tradition and that shines through big time, not only the more obvious Reverend Bizarre-like bass-heavy droning, also the more black and bleak sounding Thergothon and Tyranny tinged variations of the genre feels close in certain passages.
It doesn’t necessarily add to the listenability of the album, on the contrary, it requires quite a few extra spins in order to wrap your head around it completely, but it makes the overall experience all the more rewarding. If you’d imagine a moody and doomy first wave Black Metal band jamming on Ildjarn and Reverend Bizarre songs you have a good idea of what Moon Oracle have in store this time.
The band has undergone an interesting evolution in recent years, with each individual step being an interesting listening experience and the overarching journey feeling like a well-thought-out concept. A concept that is increasingly more balanced, more refined and, dare I say, more musically mature. But, regardless of anything, ‘Guardians Of The Lunar Spheres’ is a great album by musicians who overtly bring out the best in each other.
