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EARLY MOODS
Early Moods

RidingEasy (2022)
Rating: 9/10

Early Moods is a Los Angeles act sure to cause a stir within the doom metal scene. In 2020 the five-piece released its debut EP Spellbound, an intriguing melting pot of 70s styled grooviness very much inspired – like many – by Black Sabbath.

I was surprised at the time to discover the band featured Rude drummer Edward Andrade, who’d also featured in the past for the likes of Skeletal Remains and more recently Mysticism, although here he turns to the axe and likes to go by the more chilled name of Eddie, probably to suit the vibe! Early Moods also features Alberto Alcaraz (vocals), Oscar Hernandez (guitar), Elix Feliciano (bass) and Chris Flores (drums).

This debut full-length album will certainly appeal due to its rather laid back and simplistic design, but it will appeal more so to those who have a penchant for classic doom metal such as Pentagram, Witchfinder General, Saint Vitus and the likes. You’ll also find some nice New Wave Of British Heavy Metal ingredients alongside the expected Sabbath vapours, but all in all it’s a catchy record driven by the fluidity of its riffs as evidence on the cool ‘Live To Suffer’, the lumbering Trouble-esque ‘Return To Salem’s Gate’ and the Candlemass doom booms of ‘Defy Thy Name’; a truly brilliant exploration of heaviness dripping with Gothic tremors.

Even so, it’s not merely gloom n’ doom and at times the record drifts into an almost early Iron Maiden vibe fused with classic Deep Purple, but either way it always remains rather sinister and foreboding even with the traditional metal techniques.

The superb, yet criminally short instrumental ‘Memento Mori’ is brim full of dread, and ‘Last Rites’ (complete with brief backwards message intro) oozes with majestic, macabre wonder. Vocally, Alcaraz has a Pentagram-cum-Candlemass streak to his tone whereby his vocal commands are clear yet menacing.

‘Funeral Macabre’, ‘Early Moods’ and ‘Damnation’ all stir the traditional doom melting pot. There’s some nice shifts in gear to bass-lead gallops and surprisingly it never bores even with its simple dynamics. The only query I have in the negative is why some of the tracks suddenly fade, leaving everything dangling… but that’s a minor issue.

Early Moods sits nicely alongside the Parish self-titled debut record as fine examples of traditional doom metal suggesting a yearning within us – albeit subconsciously – for simpler yet nostalgic designs. What sets this opus aside, however, is the axe work, because out of the monolithic slabs of riffage are sparks of electric purity which dazzle the bleak horizons like bolts of lightning quarrelling with the pallid heavens. This is an immense, epic and mighty record for doom-mongers of all ages.

Neil Arnold

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