At what point do these bands just start titling their albums something like Hello Alt-Girls, I Want To Have Rough Sex And Then Kill Myself? Y’know, just cut out the middleman and stop imagining any greater purpose? It’s not like that exact vibe doesn’t already have a cottage industry unto itself within metalcore; calling it what it is won’t risk the bottom line. Well, even if we aren’t quite there yet, it’s disappointing to see Moodring as its newest perpetuators. If this is Hunter Young’s outlet after being diagnosed with a neuro-immune illness, fair enough, but let’s not pretend he isn’t better than this.
That’s not even touching on Young’s work with PSYCHO-FRAME, either; Moodring is better than this. Their Deftones-feeling approach on 2022’s Stargazer was more of a lucid, all-consuming one, even compared to others around the same time, and that put some work in towards them standing out. But because the current landscape has codified any sort of Deftones influence into shorthand for “I’m a sad, horny man”, the loop was bound to close in eventually. Therefore, death fetish (ugh…) is close to the worst expectations for Moodring realised. Break off the house-approved Sharptone production style, and what you’ve got is another spoonful of moderncore slop, just like the rest. It’s Bad Omens; it’s Dayseeker; it’s boring.
In fairness, that production is what’s keeping Moodring from a full-on plunge into the nether. Even if it’s far from special, the quasi-nu-metal / quasi-industrial feel tends to have enough kick on Half-Life or Cannibal to matter. It’s got a bit of Thornhill to it, and Oxidized even goes back to the well of ‘90s alt-rock fealty on top of that. All the while, you can sense at every possible turn how Young wants this to be his defining work. “I’m a producer, so I know when something’s fake,” goes one highfalutin pull-quote (“I don’t care about trends,” goes an ironic other), of which Young would have you believe he’s crafted his Bring Me The Horizon-style opus.
So, let’s just pump for the brakes on that notion for a second, and say that death fetish really does crumble under additional scrutiny. Its propensity to sound fine enough is left to bear every additional ounce of weight upon it, and it seldom does. You’re not remembering this album for the music, if you’re remembering it at all. That’s because it’s almost laughable how run-of-the-mill death fetish is, despite its efforts to the contrary. The artwork is the first red flag, a culmination of alt-metal’s litany of ‘provocative’ tropes that’s utterly desensitising at this point. Then, through a scan of the tracklist, you happen upon Masochist Machine, and Gunplay (Suicidal 3way), and Sickf_ck…wow, I’m sure this will be the helping of edge-core bullshit that leaves a lasting impression!
Now, that doesn’t automatically preclude Moodring from greater things; Bring Me The Horizon have their fair share of wretched cringe, too. The difference, though, is that they tend to have a semblence of an idea, or a reason to pay attention. Moodring, on the other hand, are a textbook example of trying to escape the bottleneck and becoming lodged in the dead centre. Again, it’s just desensitising to have trotted out these same references to sex, drugs, pain and the rest of it. When Bleed Enough? croaks out “Drag it slow / Across my throat / Spill it out / I need it now”, your eyes are too quick to glaze over before it registers as anything close to deadly or transgressive. STFA might have an even worse time of it, as an appropriately Motionless In White-esque number whose title stands for ‘Stay The Fuck Away’.
It’s just exhausting to have another of these play out to no avail, where your only chance of finding favour is if you listen to nothing to else but this exact thing (and those people do exist, unfortunately). It’s the fact that it comes from such a once-promising act as Moodring that stings even more. They really were on the up with Stargazer, a trajectory with clearly no room to last. death fetish—representative of Young’s unsnuffable creative flame as it is, apparently—is such an obvious downturn into anonymity that you have to wonder what the impetus behind it was. ‘Creative outlet’ is only so believable when you’re practically on your hands and knees begging to be let into the Big Boys’ Club. Well, congratulations Moodring—you’re pretty much there, and all it took was any faith in you to be power-washed away! Expect the ‘alternative’ influencers to never shut up about this one.
For fans of: Thornhill, Bad Omens, Greyhaven
‘death fetish’ by Moodring is released on 27th March on Sharptone Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
I’ll be honest, this review comes off as more of a hit piece than a review. Despite the few times you actually touch on the music and the substance here you somehow manage to spitball out some random “hey look at mr edgelord” for a majority of your talking points. I think I learned more about you than about whether or not I’ll like the album.
Hit the nail on the head here.
Dawg what? You barely touch upon the music at all and just blindly attack so much about the album that doesn’t even make sense. Did an alt kid steal your girl or something recently? Is everything okay at home?
Art is subjective and everyone is entitled to their opinion, sure, but when you can’t back it up and just write a nothing burger then your opinion becomes null and void.
I don’t even care much about Moodring, and I’ve never left a comment on a review before, but I’m struck by this comment: “This is Hunter Young’s outlet after being diagnosed with a neuro-immune illness, fair enough…’
What has someone’s neuro-immune illness got to do with this? Why bring it up at all?! Very odd statement to write into an album review.
Awful take on an album thats actually pretty good. Not a huge nu-metal guy or anything but I like Moodring, and this is their most interesting, non generic stuff yet but all you say is how its trying to be one with “the big boys club” and its literally nothing like mainstream.. anything. You should be embarrassed, this review is as amateur as it gets. You didn’t even really speak about the album or its songs, you just smack talked the band and Hunter. Reaks of jealousy and resentment. Again, amateur as hell.