BLACK MOON JUNE – The Witch Hammer (2024) *HQ*
Sometimes we wonder why some bands / artists make things harder for themselves. That’s the case with new Swedish band BLACK MOON JUNE and their album “The Witch Hammer“, released today. The album title and cover artwork immediately put these guys, at least, in the extreme metal category, even death metal. Wrong.
BLACK MOON JUNE was founded by guitarist Mathias Holm Klarin (Subway, Naked) and bassist Conny Payne (Alien, Madison), both, as you see, member or ex-members of classic melodic hard rock acts. And BLACK MOON JUNE’s music belongs to this genre. Why the cover? Why the silly album name?
Formed 2022, Klarin & Payne were soon joined by singer Toby W (Janne Schaffer, Lovomotive), a vocalist coming from a melodic hard rock background too. And what they deliver in this debut album is an amalgam of this classic genre, with songs influenced by the likes of Deep Purple, Van Halen, Electric Boys, Swedes Skintrade, etc.
And they are very good, with that clean Scandinavian sound & production… so folks, please don’t judge this album by its cover or title.
“The Witch Hammer” is a bag of different orientations and influences from the history of hard rock. There’s a pretty epic and heavy avalanche ala Black Sabbath in the opening “Under A Black Moon Sky (The Witch Hammer)”. We also find a dynamic hard rock wave in the Deep Purple-school number “The King Is Dead”.
In chorus-strong “Phoenix Rising” things turn even more swinging with clear funk-metal influences and thoughts go to bands like Electric Boys and Skintrade, while “Ring The Alarm” is almost a turbocharged Van Halen boogie in the direction of “Hot For Teacher”.
“A Thousand Years” has one of the album’s better choruses, and in the heavy riffs of “Supernova” there are ideas from both “Wherever I May Roam” (Metallica) to something that can be described in the style of Faith No More.
Toby W has a powerful voice however he doesn’t engage in unnecessary screaming or wailing – but here’s a strong throat singing all the way through, which in a world of falsetto-screaming metal singers feels quite liberating.
Black Moon June doesn’t reinvent the wheel and all the melodies may not be spot on, but there is tons of love and craftsmanship in “The Witch Hammer”. From the evil laughs in the subdued “I Walk Alone” to the leaden shuffle in the closing “Immortal”, you emphatically realize this is a band with breadth, playfulness and a very competent musicianship in the classy old-school style.
It’s an album that musically changes shape within tracks but all feels coherent (except, again, the album’s title & cover) and creates a desire in us to listen to the record one more time.
Highly Recommended
01 – Under A Black Moon Sky (The Witch Hammer)
02 – A Thousand Years
03 – Blood On Your Hands
04 – The King Is Dead
05 – Phoenix Rising
06 – Ring The Alarm
07 – Supernova
08 – I Walk Alone
09 – Stronger Than I Was Before
10 – Venom
11 – Immortal
Conny Payne (Alien, Madison) – bass
Mathias Holm Klarin (Subway, Naked) – guitar
Toby W (Janne Schaffer, Lovomotive) – vocals
with:
Jon Skarey – drums
Richie Rich – keyboards
BUY
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DGNL6Q9V/
