Moluchtas - Telos Teminus

Very little is known about Belgium based one man blackened death metal artist Moluchtas. Very shrouded, like the music he performs, there isn’t really a name or history to unearth about the artist, and with the formation what looks to be roughly in 2021, there is fresh ground to break for this band. The collection os tracks here on “Telos Terminus” is not really anything that hasn’t been released before (all 8 pieces can be found between the first 2 EPS released by Moluchtas), so for fans who have followed this underground act since the beginning will not get anything new, but for fans who have only just discovered him off the Godz ov War label, then this is a good introduction. 

Moluchtas creates a thick, hazy atmosphere of distortion much in the vein of chaotic sounding groups like Ulcerate or Entombed with just a very direct focus on doom laden riffs, harsh echoing vocals, and a tendency to switch between slow, foreboding tempos to very fast, pulsating ones. Tracks like ‘Surrender To The Void’ start off slow and funeral doom like but quickly speed up, leading more into the death metal style. The guitars tend to overtake everything though and bury the drums and the vocals, which have that gritty cavernous echo to them. Much like Ulcerate’s “Vermis” the chaos of the music is meant to sound unsettling, but unlike Ulcerate Moluchtas is more raw without the technical or avant garde Deathspell Omega inspired moments. While the riffs can tend to get a bit repetitive throughout the album Moluchtas does its best to mix things up. ‘The One That Defiles…’ has some great groove added in with funeral backing keyboads and some softer moments that help emphasize the percussive drums, so it doesn’t just feel like one is spiraling out of control with the chaotic riffs and ’The Awakening’ really aims for more of the doom death metal route versus old school blackened death metal with just a more relaxed pace but not loosening up the tone whatsoever.

‘A Carnal Illumination’ is one of the speedier examples of death metal here; blast beats galore before opting for hissing vocals among longer, oozing riffs. Then listeners get more of the black metal side on the second half of the album with the tracks from the 2nd EP. ‘Damnation’s Drawning’ has more energy to it, faster riffs, and also more pushback to the vocals, which really lets the guitars shred the ear as a result. Some death metal influence pops in here and there such as older 90s Immolation, but the sinister riffs are more of a kvlt black metal style much like Brown Jenkins meets Moon overall. 

The only downside with the more black metal driven tracks is Moluchtas sacrifices doom and groove for speed, so a lot of tracks like ’The Sanguinary Provenance’ tends to bleed together, making it difficult to discern tracks from one another. The longer tracks try to mix things up with a little bit of melodies here and there with the guitars, but overall with the raspier snarls and riffs listeners are probably going to start to want to jump around in the track to find something different and more captivating, like the percussive beats near the end of ’The Quintessence Of Emptiness’ which finally kills a lot of the monotony that holds up the track.

The closing ‘The Sun Of Malediction’ finally shows a good balance of black metal meets death metal with doom elements. Very fuzzy and hazy it hits hard, but also showcases slower, quiet moments with the percussion before opting for a slower churning riffs more in the death metal style of Corrupter for that dismal, yet still chaotic approach. The only downside is the last half of the song tends to rely on the same riffs to carry the music though the quieter it gets the more effective it becomes until finally it just the percussion and keyboards which add that great funeral doom atmosphere and closes the track on a strong note. 

Ultimately the showcase here is that of a horror driven dungeon crawling blackened death, and Moluchtas really has the innovation and ability to capitalize on that sound (not in a Mortiis sort of way though). Hopefully with future releases Moluchtas will continue to show its darker side while creating hellish riffs and sounds but giving more room to breathe within the song rather than be too suffocating with the speed and crushing riffs.

3 / 5 STARS