Muknal - Muknal 12"

Muknal are a new black/death metal trio from the USA. This is there debut three track demo, which was originally pressed on tape but has been released on 12" vinyl by Hells Headbangers. Muknal's members go by the names of Anxiety, Vahxak and Impious and they are already gaining notoriety in the catacombs of the black/death underground.

Tracklist:-

1. Cruciation
2. Rotten Genesis
3. Eidolon

This 12" has a very different sound to the Blackened Wisdom release I just reviewed.

It's more modern sounding, which I guess befits Muknal, as they are a modern band.

The build up of Cruciation is an encompassing one and Muknal's take on the black/death theme is very different. They use a lot of other textures and sounds to make their sound come alive. When the main verse kicks in, the instrumentation has a really evil undertone and the vocals lean more to black metal, with low growls and occasional high shrieks. These songs are longer in length too and employ murky, slower textures in places.

The brooding atmosphere is carried into Rotten Genesis. The intro guitar passage is a joy to hear. Not over-complicated, but menacing enough to remind you that Muknal are not messing around. As I've said before, the musical textures they weave are brilliant and at times sound otherworldly. The percussion here is a lot faster, especially the crashing cymbals and the guitars thrash away creating an energetic wall of sound. The vocals remain on the low side, to emphasise their death metal influences.

Closing song Eidolon is a shorter, more immediate slice of black metal. It underlines the chaos that Muknal are looking to achieve, but in a controlled way. Again, this is a truly harrowing song the Impious's vocals are in full flow. The sludgy undertones that reared their heads in the two previous songs make a brief appearance here, but they go even further to underline the skill of Muknal, in being able to weave different metal genres into their ungodly sound.

For a demo, this is excellent and certainly shows off their song-writing skills and passion for their genre. it deserved a release on vinyl and alongside their recent split with The Haunting Presence, it won't be long before Muknal are being talked about in much wider circles.

Now much like Blackened Wisdom before them, Muknal are not on Facebook or other social media site. Nor is their music, so again head over to Hells Headbangers to hear teasers for these tracks and to pick up a copy of this record - http://shop-hellsheadbangers.com/muknal.asp.