Morag Tong - Grieve

2023-10-04 07:00:49

Attention, insider tip: Met with their first EP and their first album Morag Tong not just the nerve of the London underground. Their powerful stoner rock sound, which flirts with doom, sludge and psych among other things, combines heavyness with atmosphere, pleasantly unpredictable and massive, and also characterized by a certain attention to detail. They are now staying at Majestic Mountain for their second album and are taking advantage of the larger stage „Grieve“which, according to singer and drummer Adam Asquith, finds the golden mean between pain and danger, beauty and joy of life.

The wonderful leisureliness of the opening “At First Light” is deceptive, because as soon as Morag Tong have raised their massive walls of sound, something has happened. Enchanting singing and suffering screams alternate, the sweet note in the distorted guitars is good. The subsequent “Passages” opens the door and creates sludge pressure waves of an ugly, distorted kind. Almost unbearable intensity emphasizes the putrid, grueling side of the genre, but wonderful doom riffs can also be seen here. There’s more of that in “A Stem’s Embrace”, but at the same time it’s deliberately slowly broken down. Neat distortion provides the necessary spice.

A single 20-minute song takes up the entire B-side: “No Sun, No Moon” bundles all of the Londoners’ qualities into an oversized monolith. It starts off inconspicuously, somewhere between psychedelic rock and transistor party, moving forward slowly. For minutes it feels like nothing happens, the finest melodic tracks are added until clear guitars, oppressive distortion and desperate screams finally collide. The atmosphere created here is close to a stroke of genius. Small caesuras, angry explosions and a slow, semi-conciliatory finale break the last resistance.

Tough, cumbersome, and yet so dynamic and complex – these are just a few of the seemingly countless contradictions that are made tangible on “Grieve” and make the process of mourning tangible in all its complexity. Stoner sounds remain the rough foundation, but Morag Tong is drawn more and more in different directions. Sometimes brutal and doomy, then supported by massive sludge, later riff-heavy and full of atmosphere: the second album from the British quartet is hard to get out of your head and gives the autumn blues a huge kick in the ass.

Rating: 8/10

Available from: October 6th, 2023
Available via: Majestic Mountain Records

Facebook: www.facebook.com/moragtongband