Review Summary: Not for the faint of heart. Posers beware!
Mooncat is a 2-piece Black Metal project formed in 2015 in Scotland. Now if you know your Black Metal, this should already ring some alarm bells in your head, saying "Hello! This is gonna be some trve krieg ***!". If you don't know your Black Metal, let me explain why: because it's from Scotland. Who the *** has heard of Scotland? I mean these days even Iceland has a bunch of awesome Black Metal bands but Scotland? Now that's what I call TRVE KVLT.
Anyway. This ain't your racist uncle's norsecore that he listens to while angrily writing walls of text on reddit about how white males are the most oppressed class in modern society. This is trve, grim and frostbitten stuff. I thought the British Isles were a boring place with pussy- I'm sorry, fanny weather. But I was wrong, because I'm an idiot. This *** is so raw and cold it makes Transilvanian Hunger sound like Everything is Fire. Or maybe Bruce Springsteen's Fire. Or Electric Six' Fire. Doesn't matter.
Mooncat IV released on February 26th 2020 is the outfit's 4th grim and ravishing demo that they've put out on Bandcamp under the label "*** off, budgie". The production on this is every bit as gnarly as you would expect, assuming that you are trve enough to have listened to their previous demos. Which is not a guarantee these days, considering how many people think Deafheaven and Dimmu Borgir and Emperor construe real Black Metal. But anyway I digress. It's some real primitive ***. If you thought Paysage d'Hiver sounded like it was recorded through tin cans tied with shoestrings, this sounds like it was recorded through your nan's moist knickers.
So what can we expect throughout this hour and 9 minutes of Scottish blizzard and permafrost? Guitars that buzz like chainsaws and you can't tell what the *** notes they're playing. That's how black metal should be, none of this Mick Barr crap that sounds like someone let their cat run rampant all over their keyboard with FL Studio open while they were talking to their wife's boyfriend. It doesn't matter what notes they're playing, what matters is that they're trve. The bass doesn't exist. What did you think this is, Animals As Leaders? Sod off. The drums blast away like nobody's business. You'd think the drummer is a machine, but this isn't Behold the Arctopus. Poser confirmed! Get em boys!
Anyway what else is there here... uhh yea the vocals. So this person sounds pissed. Dunno if it's a lad or a lass or what, can't make out anything being screamed here. All I can tell is they're pissed. Reading the lyrics booklet posted on the band's official Twitter, they tackle some truly important themes of our time. IF I could understand a bloody word being said, I'm sure I would find it very inspiring to hear such lyrics as "Whites will not be replaced", "Feminists and Islam are ruining society" and "Gamers rise up!". Truly thought-provoking ideas, and let's face it, we all know it's true, we're just too afraid to say it. Oh also, every once in a while there's a spooky ambient interlude, but it's not lame like Cradle of Filth, it sounds like someone smashing a ***ing piano outside the room this was recorded in. Kinda. And there's also a sample of Hitler saying something about a German band called Die Juden but I'm not sure what that's about. Anyway these guys are not Nazis, they made a post on Twitter where they clarified that they're just exploring transgressive themes for the sake of art. It's post-modernism or something, you wouldn't get it. Read a book or go to college idk.
In conclusion, this is honest good. This is what Black Metal should be in 2020. We don't need folk acoustic guitars, we don't need twee synths, we don't need technical riffz or clean vocals or any of that lame ***. Just pure truth, cold blasts of truth, cold beer (non-alcoholic, because we're not philistines like those disgusting thrashers and punks, ugh), cold dead bodies, cold fusion and of course cold riffs that sound like the wind is blowing through that one hole in your roof at night when you're trying to sleep.