Moondark is a death metal band from Sweden, who formed in 1993. The band’s releases have been sporadic, releasing two demos between their formation and a reissue of that demo in 2015. “The Abysmal Womb” is their full-length debut, finally seeing the light of day. “The Abysmal Womb,” could easily fit under the doom banner as well as tempo lingers between crawling and mid-paced. The riffs are thick and grimy—this is definitely an album that is suffocating without a shred of light to be found. The riffs are surprisingly catchy most of the time which is good because nothing here is overly flashy. The album doesn’t have any actual solos, long atmospheric passages, or anything out of the ordinary. That may be a good or bad thing, depending on your tastes. The focus on pure death/doom and nothing else is compatible and it’s nice to hear this genre without a lot of pretenses.

The production is about what one would expect of an album like this, and as far as I’m concerned, is a good thing. The overall sound is somewhat raw but cavernous to capture the band’s depth. The mix could use a little work, however, especially with the double bass—I wish it was a bit more up front. “Where Once Was Life,” opens the album with mid-paced riffs of high density and a harrowing scream. The rumbling rhythm that marches forward as the growls rip open the song reminds me of a doom version of BOLT THROWER. Do we need that? Yes, yes we do. This song is pure groove as the band moves the earth from one grave plot to the next.

“Palliative Dusk,” opens with more riffs and drums that compliment them pretty well. The lead guitar makes an appearance with what could be melody or a harmony—it seems unsure of it’s place in the song and doesn’t really need to be there. The halfway point of the song pushes the tempo up a few ticks, which is a nice change of pace (pun intended or not, you can decide). Unfortunately, by the time the halfway point of the album arrives, it all begins to blend in together. There aren’t really any bad songs per say across the album but they all sound about the same. As I traveled deeper into the album, I had trouble telling the riffs apart from each other and all the songs just sort of blended in together. I’ve heard variety is the spice of life and, depending on the band, that isn’t always true but this album could have used a few twists and turns to keep it fresh.

Ultimately, MOONDARK’s “The Abysmal Womb,” is a solid album but doesn’t stand out enough to keep my attention for more than a few songs at a time.