Red Moon Architect – Kuura

Label: Grey Beton Records
Releasedate: 05.04.2019

Kuura (meaning “frost” in Finnish) is the 4th full length album of the Finnish death/doom metallers Red Moon Architect. Differing from the previous three albums of the band, Kuura stands out as being the most bleak and doomiest one of them all. In the previous albums I always attached progginess to their style and they had made progressive metal mixed with doomy death metal. Maybe because of the doom element, I mistook it for being proggy but anyway. Here we have full blown funeral doom album in our hands with Kuura.

The album contains 3 tracks or parts, if you will. Kuura pt.1(19 min. long), Kuura pt.2(4:55 min. long) and Kuura pt.3 (16 min.long). They are definitely interconnected one another in vibe and theme, not to be listened to separately to get the full experience or the journey whatever you wanna call it. Because they complete one another maybe in a linear way. 

Pt.1 is the slowest doom track I have ever heard, but take it neutrally when I say it because it wants to give you that experience exactly and nothing else. I will keep saying “maybe” throughout this review because I can only assume at this point about what the band intended to give across as there is no official promo or introduction to the album by the band nor any statements about the album. And that’s totally okay. You just listen to it and get whatever you need to get out of it. Pt. 1 is extremely down-tempo, dark and pondering and there’s no technicality only the feeling, the odd rhythm is there to tell you that. Pt.2 is an atmospheric bridge between the 1st and 3rd parts and it serves as a somewhat breather from all the doom and gloom and again to make you ponder about all the feelings that pt.1 made you go through. Pt. 3 as it starts, gives you a relief as being more melodic but of course still doomy. With the sad melodies given by the keyboards, Pt.3 is more guitar-oriented with harrowing scream vocals.

 All in all, Kuura is a very unfiltered portrayal of grief, at least that’s the impression it made on me and my mental space at the time I listened to it. If you are a doom metal fan, or won’t feel down by an extremely depressing sound, it can actually be quite liberating and give you a perspective about your own state of mind and the situations of life in general, go on and give it a listen. 

Line up:

Saku Moilanen Drums, Keyboards
Jukka Jauhiainen Bass
Matias Moilanen Guitars
Anni Viljanen Vocals
Ville Rutanen Vocals
Taneli Jämsä Guitars

Kuura

Pt.1

Pt.2

Pt.3

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