Heavy Heart by MOOR

"Heavy Heart" was written and recorded by the original line-up around singer and guitarist Kasalar, guitarists Ben Laging and David Kaiser, bassist Christian Smukal and drummer Chad Popple. All of them have earned their spurs in other bands or projects and have appeared with Tephra, Sport, The Ocean, Gorge Trio or rha. You see, there were no blinkers in sight for miles from the beginning. Instead, there were tons of visceral force, emotion and pressure. This sound is closer to Omega Massif or Neurosis than to Sabbath stoner clones, regurgitated from deep down where you only go when you have to. Moor have to: Within weeks, two band members are diagnosed with cancer – Ben Laging and Christian Smukal. In 2022, co-founder and bassist Smukal loses the battle against this terrifying asshole cancer, tearing a big gap in the band's structure. "Heavy Heart" is his farewell letter, his legacy. "For me, it's a gift to be a part of Christian's last recordings," says guitarist David Kaiser. "The sessions together before we went into the studio were very inspiring." Kasalar adds, "Everything we did during that time, all the strokes of fate we went through together formed this heavy heart, and it will keep beating." In the current line-up, bassist Ralph Ulrich (Kavrila) as well as drummer Elinor Lüdde (Corecass) complete a band that operates where it really hurts.

There was never any question of not continuing the band. Because it was Christian's wish, as Ben Laging emphasizes. And now we can hear this "Heavy Heart", this gnarling, this hurting, this serious album serving as the last memory of an old friend and companion but at the same time the beginning of something new, something big. The frightening sound digs deep into your heart with no less than three guitars, at first a temporary solution, but then very quickly declared the new maxim. This escape from noise, tears and pain was captured at Tonmeisterei Oldenburg (Phantom Winter, Downfall Of Gaia, Eremit), an excellent choice that lets Moor move pleasantly far away from current metal productions. Also the content of the songs is uncompromising and equally far away from any scene clichés. Indeed they are more poetry than blatant rock'n'roll lyricism. "I'm a big fan of poetry," confesses lyricist Kasalar and grins: "The standard metal satan stuff or any doom stoner stories are not my thing. I'm more of a storyteller, working through my emotional shallows."

Catharsis through pain is almost a platitude, a cliché. But it does work. Living proof is Moor, a band that requires more than any other that came before them to chisel the obligatory appendage "Post" in front of their barrel-chested doom. Moor are wearing the insignia of the genre, fully aware that doom is something that happens between the notes. Down there somewhere, deep in the gut.

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