Album Review: Moana - The Trilogy Of The Black Monsoon

"What we need is a fuck!" That statement, hissed with all the subtlety of a flying brick, opens new Moana EP The Trilogy Of The Black Monsoon. It's absolutely no secret that singer Moana Lutton has been gifted with an incredible instrument in her voice, though listening to it, it's hard not to picture an angrier Patience Hodgson. Her frightening harmonic howls fiercely compete with mismatching stoner rock to be the focal point of attention, which invariably ends up detracting from both. Magenta Dust is the crafty exception, staying relaxed and letting the glaring discord between Lutton and band dissolve enough to deliver a saucy, nightmarish trip.

Sticking to only a small handful of chords all throughout this packed out EP doesn't help them here, and the doldrums that are churned out as a result unfortunately don't give Lutton room enough to infuse much variety into her singing, even when the band is stripped right back to little more than an ominous acoustic guitar on closer Black Monsoon. If they dialled the intensity back a couple of notches, they might genuinely find a way to deliver a more cohesive sound. Instead, they come across as Nightwish attempting to score a Robert Rodriguez film.