{"id":447573,"date":"2026-01-30T15:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/447573\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T15:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T15:09:08","slug":"mol-dreamcrush-review-angry-metal-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/447573\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u00d8L – Dreamcrush Review | Angry Metal Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One of the common complaints I see about blackgaze is that it tends to be toothless compared to its black metal forebear. This is part of the personal appeal to me, but, in any case, Denmark\u2019s M\u00d8L has built a reputation for bucking that trend. They managed to impress even hardened metalheads like Mark Z., who found their 2018 debut, Jord<\/a>, biting enough to shake him from his blackgaze apathy. Nuclear Blast Records scooped up M\u00d8L for the release of Diorama in 2021, which largely picked up where Jord left off. Now, after a fairly lengthy absence, we have Dreamcrush. Is M\u00d8L still interested in being one of the fiercest voices in the blackgaze genre?<\/p>\n

While M\u00d8L was once a direct competitor to Deafheaven, they have largely moved on to a different market segment. The change is most apparent in the guitars, which traded the muscular black metal riffs for a dreamy hybrid of classic shoegaze and vintage alt-rock hooks \u00e0 la The Smashing Pumpkins or Silversun Pickups. At the same time, traces of more modern acts can be detected. The pairing of cheery, punk-tinged guitar chords with blackened rasps calls to mind Noctambulist<\/a>. Other times, Dreamcrush is like a more gazey, less mathy version of Rolo Tomassi. Somehow, M\u00d8L has created something that feels both fresh and nostalgic.<\/p>\n

\ufeffDREAMCRUSH by M\u00d8L<\/a><\/p>\n

These significant overhauls that M\u00d8L made to their formula have vastly improved replayability. On previous records, the guitars did a lot of the heavy lifting to convey nuanced emotion while the vocals mainly draped a uniform blanket of fury. Now, Kim Song Sternkopf\u2019s clean singing shares much more of the melodic load. His harsh vocal range has also been noticeably expanded from his usual high-pitched snarls, dipping into low growls during tracks such as \u201cYoung\u201d and \u201cA Former Blueprint.\u201d Dreamcrush is also more dynamic from an instrumental perspective, from the jangling guitar strumming (\u201cSm\u00e5 Forlis\u201d) to dark riffing (\u201cYoung\u201d) to delicate strings (\u201cFavour\u201d). While I do enjoy M\u00d8L\u2019s prior work, it didn\u2019t quite escape a sense of homogeneity until now.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are, however, a few small kinks in M\u00d8L\u2019s newfound musical direction. Even though their melodies are distinctive, the song structures become a tad predictable, often alternating between clean-sung verses and lead guitar\/harsh vocal choruses. Also, several songs have limp, unsatisfying conclusions (\u201cDREAM,\u201d \u201cDissonance\u201d), slightly hampering the overall flow. Finally, Dreamcrush\u2019s midsection (\u201cHud,\u201d \u201cGarland,\u201d and \u201cFavour\u201d) is considerably softer than usual for M\u00d8L, which I personally appreciate but may cause some existing fans to take issue. I will say, however, that these tracks feature the more dazzling guitar solos, and the tail end of Dreamcrush hearkens more to M\u00d8L\u2019s former aggression. Dreamcrush\u2019s individual track lengths have been trimmed to reach an easily digestible total runtime of 42 minutes.<\/p>\n

M\u00d8L continues to defy genre stereotypes, though in a much different way than before. No longer content to zoom past other groups in the blackgaze lane, they unexpectedly shifted to various other rock subgenres. Some longtime fans may be disappointed by the waning black metal, but M\u00d8L is still ethereal and heavy with skill that many of their peers strive for but rarely achieve. I can genuinely say that Dreamcrush is my favorite M\u00d8L release to date, and they have removed many of the barriers that were preventing me from fully embracing fandom. While Dreamcrush may not perfectly come together as a whole, it proves that M\u00d8L isn\u2019t inclined to sit still and grow complacent.<\/p>\n

Rating: 3.5\/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast Records<\/a>
Websites: moeldk.bandcamp.com<\/a> | molband.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/moeldk<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: January 30th, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the common complaints I see about blackgaze is that it tends to be toothless compared to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[10968,25471,231845,1769,64,63,26922,231846,186254,231847,134,212933,208028,136,231848,125701,228,229,231849,60138,231850,146177],"class_list":["post-447573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-10968","tag-3-5","tag-alt-rock","tag-alternative","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-black-metal","tag-danish-metal","tag-deafheaven","tag-dreamcrush","tag-entertainment","tag-jan26","tag-mol","tag-music","tag-noctambulist","tag-nuclear-blast-records","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-rolo-tomassi","tag-shoegaze","tag-silversun-pickups","tag-the-smashing-pumpkins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}