MORAST are an intense Doom / Sludge band hailing from Germany. “Fentanyl” is their third full length and their first with the excellent Ván Records. The moment I started to play the first track, I felt a sense of familiarity, MORAST engage with the basics of rotten heavy Sludge Metal and have juxtaposed the spirit of Black Metal with it. Whilst ‘Of Furor And Ecstasy’ starts off slow, it builds up into a dark monster of drone’ish guitars leaning into a gloomy atmosphere. The vocals are a pretty standard affair and do their job well. The band works together and takes it step by step, I absolutely love the repetitive background riffs where the vocalist carries the tempo of the song. MORAST employs a similar approach, but mixes it up with enough variety to not bore the listener. On the songwriting front, I’d call it smart as MORAST seems to have carefully put together a structure and they want to stick with it. In a generic slab of Metal, one could argue that such an approach leads to staleness and that is a valid argument. However MORAST do a spectacular job to keep the listener interested, the track ‘Walls Come Closer’ literally feels it, the first imagery in my mind was of a serpent slowly moving across a dark maze. I genuinely enjoy such pieces where I’m able to project a corresponding picture to the music and with MORAST it was so easy to do so. Track # 4, ‘A Thousand And More’, stands out for me, it’s a mid-tempo song where every single element of the band is in perfect harmony with the other. The gloomy atmosphere steps forward with a gentle agility, the guitars and the vocals sound massive with each getting their own space, this has been mixed brilliantly! I quite enjoyed what I’ve heard. Okay, the album name does sound a bit juvenile, I’d have loved had they named it after track # 2, ‘Aratron’. The album is just about 34 minutes which is perfect. The band uses multiple approaches towards their songwriting which all work well together and are quite enjoyable. On the whole, MORAST sounds akin to a dark brooding atmosphere with imposing vocals that suffocate you with darkness. Definitely warrants a spin, recommended! For more information, please visit: www.facebook.com/officialmorast, www.facebook.com/vanrecords