Finland is a country which does melancholy, despair and darkness perfectly. In fact, no other country betters it, from the midnight sun to the perpetual dark, Finns are able to tap into something innate when it comes to making metal. It is therefore no surprise that Hanging Garden have delivered album after album of pure melancholic melodic doom/death metal since their 2007 debut and now, the Finns are back with their latest EP ‘Neither Moth nor Rust’.
As an EP, ‘Neither Moth…’ sticks within the sound laid down on Hanging Garden’s previous studio album ‘Skeleton Lake’. However, none of it has the smell of studio leftovers from last year, instead, this is six tracks of pure melodic doom/death delivered through an accessible front which manages to continue to hold the listeners attention from pummelling riffs to spacious atmospheric passages. Tracks such as ‘On the Shore of Eternity’, ‘The Last Dance’ and the title track have all the enjoyability of Slumber, Swallow the Sun and Rapture whilst ‘The Raven Portrait’ has enough atmospheric serenity to appeal to fans of A Pale Horse Named Death.
Clocking in at just over 25 minutes, it is a little long for an EP. However, ‘Neither Moth…’ does its job wonderfully and worth seeking out if you’re a fan of melodic doom/death because Hanging Garden have delivered another EP that really does have a lot of replayability.
