Review: Moozoonsii – Inward

Style: Sludgy, Stoner Prog (Instrumental)
Review by: Will
Country: France
Release date: 28 April 2022

Navel-gazey voyage of self-discovery and potential soundtrack to a spirit quest at the Mad Hatter’s afterparty, Inward is the first of a planned duo of albums by stoner rock trio Moozoonsii. This album uses indigenous instruments and clearly draws on music traditions from the Americas and Oceania (both indigenous and contemporary) to create the atmosphere of a fevered shamanistic ritual – a psychedelic journey through mind and soul.

The second of the planned album duo is due to be named Outward so together they would be Inward and Outward. The idea seeming to be an exploration of the human psyche both inward and outward looking. Inwards as one might expect, has a very introspective feel to it: With ever-shifting time signatures, a diverse orchestra of instruments and sample sounds (from didgeridoos to the sampled calls of exotic birds), the sheer business of the tracks gives a lot for the listener to focus on. This is an album that demands repeated listens. Focusing on a different instrument, a different rhythm line in each listen, gives a different journey and different experience to the album. The effect is almost meditative and, by the end, one almost feels like that crocodile-headed character in a bewilderingly nonsensical landscape on the cover art (created in its surreal majesty by Blue Chep).

There’s a lot of influence drawn from Latin music throughout the album which is wonderful to hear. From “Mangrove”’s whistle and diverse percussion which hint at Olodum style music to “Wudum” and  “Tinotaba”’s use of phrygian dominant licks as well as marked tonal (or instrumental) changes to invoke an exotic, latin feel to the track. This, coupled with samples of exotic bird calls and overlaid with dark, sludgy guitar riffs gives the impression of a rocky soundtrack to an Ayahuasca ceremony. 

The mix by Christophe Hogommat is wonderfully balanced, allowing room for a diverse range of instruments (particularly on the percussion end) on some of the busier tracks like “Venom” to breathe. Though it may have been by design, it would have been nice to hear more of the bass throughout the album. The bass has some excellent prominent lines in tracks like “Mangrove” and “Venom”, but gets lost on some of the sludgier tracks.

Though clearly aiming for something new and experimental, Inward clearly still has feet in the stoner/sludge/doom metal of the western tradition. “Beelzebufo” is almost reminiscent of some of Mastodon’s sludgier tracks. While “Titanoba”, the most traditionally ‘stoner rock’ track on the album, owes a lot to Sleep and Electric Wizard. Sadly, in the days of electronic wizardry, simply adding unusual sounding instruments and tones to your track and relying heavily on a wah pedal doesn’t break the mould for modern listeners. It would have been amazing to hear Moozoonsii run with the idea of using idiosyncratic instruments and employing them for more than a few seconds at a time (it’s possible – just ask Ayreon!). Otherwise they’re more accents and window dressing than a real, incorporated part of the band’s sound.

It would be remiss not to mention the adroit instrumentation from all the band members; something that is so vital in a purely instrumental album in order to keep the listener engaged throughout. There’s dominating guitar work from Basile Chiariello and some truly inspired bass work from Fabien Hervé – beautifully displayed on the opening and closing tracks. The percussion section, headed by Matthieu Bellemere and contributed to by Christophe Hogommat is really something to behold (in a manner of speaking). This is the section of the band that managed to assimilate non-western forms of instrumentation most fully and most effectively. The sheer range of percussion on this album brings this album to life and keeps the listener hypnotised for the duration.

In Outward, it would be interesting to see if Moozoonsii could possibly take the next step and release themselves further from their grounding in the Western tradition and fly out into the great wide psychedelic yonder. 

Recommended tracks: Mangrove, Titanoba, Wudum
Recommended for fans of: Sleep, Elder, Electric Wizard, Lucid Planet
You may also like: Diagonal, Heavy Pendulum,
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Self-Released

Moozoonsii is:
– Basile Chiariello – Guitar
– Fabien Hervé – Bass
– Matthieu Bellemere – Drums, percussions

with:
– Christophe Hogommat – additional percussion, mix