Even-though I am such notorious, famous and universally highly-appreciated reviewer, even I can be surprised by projects I haven’t heard of before. Can you imagine, me, the greatest recensent of all times, being surprised by a very productive musicians without knowing about his existence? It is almost incredible, but hey, it did happen.
Spanish multi-instrumentalist “The Troll” (not just The Troll without those two “-marks!) seems to be an extremely productive human being (I guess, at least, that there is something ‘human’ behind this entity), active under monikers as Trollfastheart, Aanomm, Luzfer or Deleznable, amongst many others. However, one of his most productive solo-outfits (maybe the most productive one out of 665) is called Molbol, which was formed in 2017. As from then, “The Troll” did record and release several EP’s / full-lengths and a couple of splits (with Parásito, for which he provides the heavenly voices, consisting of formerly recorded and released demonstrational material).
Since the four former ones (splits not included) were called I, II, III and IV, it might not be that surprising that this fifth one is called… Indeed, you smart one: V it is. And since all former tracks were named I, II, and so on (I won’t sum them up, for there are twenty-three of them), this fifth non-split release comes with four lengthy tracks called XXIV, XXV, XXVI and… (drum-rolling…) XXVII. V (and then I am referring to the album, not to the older song) was completely done / finished by this trollish being, and apparently dedicated to his beautiful Rottweiler called Marduk (picture included in the accompanying booklet). The physical edition is available in assistance of the mighty Holland-based label The Ritual Productions (jewel-case edition with four-page booklet; no lyrics, unfortunately), including distribution assistance of “The Troll”’s own SadiXmo channel.
V (once again: not the song, but the album) goes on in the vein of the former stuff, apparently. That means that this album brings somewhat melodious and rhythmic, hypnotic and unhappy Black Metal with a primal execution and a rough sound. With ‘unhappy’ I am referring to an approach that comes close to the DSBM-scene. Okay, I will never pretend that ‘Black Metal’ and ‘happiness’ go along, but you get the grey picture, I hope. So, as said, there surely is a prominent connection with the DSBM (Depressive-Suicidal Black Metal) scene, especially vocal-wise. The tormented, echoing, wretched high-pitched screams and yells are reminiscent of that specific sub-genre for sure. And even-though Molbol are not a DSBM-act in nature, I think that the relationship, that sickened and acid relationship, does not surprise anyone. Also the sometimes explicit melancholic riffs and dark-atmospheric melodies are recognizable in a certain sense.
Yet then again, Molbol trespass all borders and limitations connected to this or that sub-scene. It’s a pity that I do not have the lyrics, and the titles do not reveal anything at all either, but misanthropy, disgust for the human race, anarchy, escapism and isolationism are surely part of the concept. The primal, minimal approach is like a secret cover for an extremely in-depth message concept-wise, as well as when it comes to the sonic side. At first, things do sound straight-forward, uncompromising and purely old-styled. There’s no doubt that this counts as the heart of Molbol’s outlet of frustration, negativity and repellence. Yet somehow, the whole shows a technical excellence too. This goes for the great yet subtly used acoustic or semi-acoustic excerpts, the organically executed tempo-changes, the hidden complexity of some structural chapters, or the very fine, captivating, even mesmerizing tremolo leads or solo-work, ingeniously woven into the rabid and no-nonsense pillars of bleak-blackened sound.
A few words about the cover artwork too: unusual, confronting, toxic, cool!
Nothing more to add. Recommended, but not for everyone at all.
https://sadixmo.bandcamp.com/album/molbol-v