{"id":27916,"date":"2024-01-19T12:47:36","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T12:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/?p=27916"},"modified":"2024-01-19T13:36:01","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T13:36:01","slug":"review-upon-stone-dead-monther-moon-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/review-upon-stone-dead-monther-moon-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Upon Stone: Dead Mother Moon (2024, Century Media Records)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today I came across the release of <strong><em>Dead Mother Moon<\/em><\/strong> by chance, the debut album by the Californian melodic death metal band <strong>Upon Stone<\/strong>. It happens to be difficult to keep track of all the albums that are published throughout the month, and I must admit that this one was not in my sights, however thanks to its striking cover I have plunged headlong into seeing what they could do for me. offer the four young musicians from Los Angeles in their debut work and at the outset I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We could say that <strong>Upon Stone<\/strong> is a melodic death metal band at first glance although I must admit that there are many more layers to their music and that labeling a band in the end is a complicated feat and in the case of <strong>Upon Stone<\/strong> it couldn&#8217;t be more difficult. The basis of their music is death metal, especially if we focus on the vocal technique of their vocalist and also bassist <strong>Xavier Wahlberg<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"UPON STONE - Onyx Through The Heart (OFFICIAL VIDEO)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cATJ3RBTtWI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The music, on the other hand, is based on old school death metal, that of bands like <strong>Carcass <\/strong>or the first <strong>Arch Enemy<\/strong> albums with <strong>Johan Liiva<\/strong>, although at times it becomes somewhat more aggressive and wild, getting closer to thrash metal or one of my favorite bands from the European scene, <strong>Gorefest<\/strong>, as in the case of <strong><em>To Seek And Follow The Call Of Lions<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The duration of the album is quite tight, with a total duration of 31 minutes over nine songs among which we find an instrumental song with a certain aroma of <strong>Ulver<\/strong>&#8216;s atmospheric black metal in its <strong><em>Kveldssanger <\/em><\/strong>stage (1995, Voices Music &amp; Entertainment), which seems to me to be a complete and resounding success. However, we find much heavier and melodic songs like <strong><em>Dusk Sang Fairest<\/em><\/strong>, which at certain points has brought me reminiscences of the incredible <strong><em>Heartwork <\/em><\/strong>(1993, Earache Records) by <strong>Carcass<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the case of <strong><em>Dead Mother Moon<\/em><\/strong> I have come across a combination of melodic death metal from the mid-nineties that has sometimes reminded me of the Swedish In Flames with their <strong><em>Colony <\/em><\/strong>(1999, Nuclear Blast) album combined with some more forceful passages that could well having been part of <strong>Arch Enemy<\/strong>&#8216;s glorious debut album <strong><em>Black Earth<\/em><\/strong> (1996, Savage Messiah Music). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"UPON STONE - Dead Mother Moon (OFFICIAL VIDEO)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s0P9fro4xes?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I had to list the songs that I liked the most from <strong><em>Dead Mother Moon<\/em><\/strong>, those would be <strong><em>Onyx Through The Heart <\/em><\/strong>and <strong><em>The Lantern<\/em><\/strong>, two songs that manage to capture the essence of this quartet perfectly in which guitarists <strong>Ronny Lee Marks<\/strong> and <strong>Gage <\/strong>achieve offer a very sharp work on the melodic base in which drummer <strong>Wyatt Bentley<\/strong> totally shines. Once again I must recognize the great work of <strong>Xavier Wahlberg<\/strong> on the voice, offering his particular vocal technique in a masterful way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What surprised me most about the album is the cover artwork, in addition to being the first thing I noticed from <strong><em>Death Mother Moon<\/em><\/strong>, where we can see a futuristic knight with a particular armor and the moon in the background in a totally inhospitable place. This is a cover that could easily have been used on any classic heavy metal album and that stands out here precisely for giving more versatility to its proposal, offering something different with a lot of class and style. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I must also give an extra point to the album for including a very original version of one of my favorite <strong>Misfits <\/strong>songs, the brutal <strong><em>Dig Up Her Bones<\/em><\/strong>, which also serves as a bonus track for an album that will remain on my list of favorites for a long time. time in complete safety. Good job, guys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Upon-Stone-Dead-Mother-Moon-2024-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-27917\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Upon-Stone-Dead-Mother-Moon-2024-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Upon-Stone-Dead-Mother-Moon-2024-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Upon-Stone-Dead-Mother-Moon-2024-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Upon-Stone-Dead-Mother-Moon-2024-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Upon-Stone-Dead-Mother-Moon-2024.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tracklist:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Dead Mother Moon<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Onyx Through The Heart<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>My Destiny, a Weapon<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dusk Sang Fairest<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Paradise Failed (feat. Shadows Fall)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nocturnalism<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>To Seek And Follow The Call Of Lions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Lantern<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dig Up Her Bones (Bonus Track)<\/li>\n<\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Upon Stone&#8217;s debut album is ready to kick some serious ass.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[774],"tags":[1199],"class_list":["post-27916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-upon-stone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliedforces.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}