Hailing from Portland, Oregon, uSSa, Lung Molde were formed somewhere in 2015 by MS (drums), AD (guitars and bass) and JH (vocals and guitars). They wrote and recorded some compositions, which they did release independently the digital way in September 2015. Little later, the great and, I hope, upcoming American label Caligari Records decided to release the material on tape. This gets released in an edition limited to 175 copies.
This untitled debut consists of two times three tracks, all together clocking almost forty minutes. They bring quite a melodious form of Stoner / Sludge-injected Doom, with an eccentric (not: experimental, progressive or modern) approach.
Well, as a matter of fact, I have not much to add this time. This stuff is like Baroness and Unearthly Trance getting revised by Neurosis or (earlier) Mastodon, taking notice of influences by, well, let’s say Saint Vitus (mind some of the massive riff passages!), very early Cathedral (hail!) or why not, Trouble and Black Sabbath. I’ve not that often experienced such a heavy rhythm section (honestly not – that’s why I did refer to e.g. Cathedral and, for example, the debut of Unearthly Trance), but believe me: the majestic guitar melodies and the somewhat soaring vocals too are characteristic, distinctive, own-faced.
One must simply adore the sound quality, for the production is more, much more than what we might deserve. The sound is so f*cking heavy, overpowering, monumentally massive (if you want to, I can add comparisons like ‘colossal’, ‘gargantuan’, ‘monolithic’, ‘prehistoric’ and much more…) – but seriously, this stuff comes with the greatest mix that is needed for this kind of vile and dirty ugliness. Especially within the ‘faster’ parts (haha, read my lips; oops, you can’t, but ‘faster’ means ‘slow-instead-of-ultra-slow’ – or something like that) – anyway, the production is so thick, filthy and overwhelming, as if there’s no air left to breathe… (so what’s the prob?).
Personally (but that isn’t but a subjective giving) I prefer the A-side, for there is quite a lot to experience. No, not actually ‘quite a lot’, but the listener might be blown away by the eruptional grotesqueries of those hammering compositions. Side B, to my (modest) opinion, lacks of inspiration and persuasion, … No further comment, for otherwise I would go to deep within my own subjectivity… Let’s conclude with: promising, but lacking of ‘the thing’. Yet… I wonder what’s next to come. Until then, and as for now, I would give this band the benefit of doubt…