Artist: Black Fullmoon
Country: Puerto Rico
Label: Self-Released
Formats: Demo Tape
Year: 2024
A haunting and sinister Dungeon Synth-like track sets the mood for the self-titled demo of this new and anonymous Black Metal entity from Puerto Rico. And their intentions are no secret, as they are boldly displayed at the top of their Bandcamp page: “LLN worship”.
And although I wouldn’t claim this is an exact copy of any of the bands out of the infamous Les Légions Noires, it more or less echoes a similar sort of atmosphere. It indeed sounds cold, raw and minimalistic and is poured in a total non-production. The eerie melodies do linger on and play a significant role in the overall atmosphere of the music, which is further underscored by the flat and distant sounding drums. Just like the folded, mingled and used artwork that comes with this (unfortunately) digital-only demo, the overall production of the demo sounds like it could have been in your demo collection for about 25 years already.
Yet, it would be a bit too easy to just compare the music to the Les Légions Noires bands, as frankly, there is quite a bit more going on. It might sound raw and authentically old and there is indeed a distinct parallel to the French scene of the mid to late-90’s, Black Fullmoon isn’t quite as harsh-sounding or downright demented as Mütiilation, Vlad Tepes or Belkètre. The power of ‘Black Fullmoon’ mostly lies within the quite unique overall sound, which is pushed to higher levels by the slow and almost doomish pace of the majority of the music, and not so much in the same sort riffs or guitar tone of those iconic French bands.
All the individual musical elements culminate in quite an astonishing, heavily atmospheric, yet short demo – clocking in well under 10 minutes. It is that combination of the slow tempo, the moody way of riffing and the tucked-away drums that makes ‘Black Fullmoon’ one of the most appealing demos of recent times.
