“I pick myself up just to waste away again.”
Brighton based El Moono is one of those groups that must be on your radar if you like to keep up with the best of up-and-coming bands. The quartet has fused alt rock and post-hardcore in a way that is not entirely unique, but I think they bring a lot to the table with this sound. They’ve put out a slew of singles leading up to their 13 track debut, The Waking Sun, out this Friday, May 10th.
This is their first release since 2022’s Temple Corrupted, and comparing the two, The Waking Sun is very much darker, heavier, bigger, everything you could want to see in a band levelling up. Take the crushing title track, “The Waking Sun” which cranks up the energy with an ignorant, braggadocios riff to start. The vocals laid down by Zac Jackson emulate that energy as he belts “I’m fucking done with waking up // I just want to know why nothing seems to help.” Leah Stanhope might be the MVP of the track, though, as she adds her talent to the end. Her vocal tone travels from rock to folk and back again and she really brings everything together.
It’s by track 4, “The Charm”, where I started to be reminded of the band Sycamour with respect to El Moono’s sound. The vocal delivery by Zac is very similar, with how it’s atmospheric and soulful, and the tone is so similar. Instrumentally, there are similarities there too. It’s theatrical, dark, and uniquely heavy in these ways. El Moono lives in very different sonic realms, but there’s been a Sycamour shaped hole in my heart for quite some time, and I’m glad to let El Moono fill that in their own way.
“The First Man on Mars” is relatively short and sweet with how it presents a new speed for the album, but sandwiching it in the ethereal vocals and production effects common to the album. The track certainly has its heavy moments, but they are the exception, not the rule, like the majority of the rest of the track listing. The juxtaposition within this track due to this makes for a great listen.
Some of the tracks feel a bit too chaotic and noisy without much substance to latch onto. This is the case with “Illusionist” which has Zac’s vocal delivery sounding like an ad lib (though the lyrical consistency obviously proves the opposite), and the sound is mostly what I’m pointing towards here. In the case of “Illusionist“, the dark ambient outro mostly redeems it, however, and this climactic moment is a good microcosm of what El Moono can do. Similarly, the main riff of “Haunting” is well done, but maybe a bit too minimalistic, and the vocal delivery here is just too meandering to lend itself to impactful instrumental work. I get that pop appeal is not the goal, but momentum and direction can be present while is a song is instrumental and dark, and “Haunting” is lacking with respect to both the topline and instrumental song writing.
“Chains” is a good example of the opposite, where both aspects of song writing seem like there’s a clear vision in place. The drum and bass work even gets to shine more as there’s just more breathing room despite maintaining the heavy and dark tones. I also really like Zac’s delivery on the hook, as he engages a new mode singing “overcompensate for your lack of heart.” Then the end of the track is one of the best moments on the record as a whole, as the song is stripped down to acapella, before bursting back into life in a big way.
“Screw Loose” starting with a “Tom Sawyer“-esque sound effect before the most rock-centric track of the album starts must be an intentional choice, but I love it, nonetheless. The main riff, as well as Zac’s vocals, come off as dancey, and this is so jarring since none of the other tracks have even an implied dancey aspect to them, but it works so well here. The cut loses momentum during the chorus, more than a bit, but it’s still a very fun track overall. Not to mention the ending, which has this stop-start-stop mathy riff to kick it off to great effect.
“Marionettes”, the penultimate track, certainly makes a case for the best on all of The Waking Sun. The opening chord progress is very “Australian Metalcore” in how dark it feels but heavy it hits. And the rest of the track displays perhaps the full array of what the band likes to do with their sound. Instead of some tracks possessing some elements, while others focus on different elements, “Marionettes” uses everything across its 4-minute run time. It has plenty of sections where it can breathe like in “Chains”, and an absolutely nasty guitar tone during the breakdowns. Zac impresses here too, not only vocally, but as with the imagery on some of these lyrics such as ”…building mildew on the cracks across your spine.”
The album ends in all but in name with “Soul Eclipse” which is another example of so many on The Waking Sun where the opening riff impresses. This one is like if a pop-punk guitarist wrote with a shoegaze tone and then El Moono got to add their darker tone to it. The end is pretty bombastic too, as the chord progression once more becomes more than a bit mathy, with an explosive and cathartic finish before “Dusk” fittingly ends The Waking Sun.
I can’t stress how underrated El Moono is. In a world where Sleep Token is one of the biggest bands, and some people like what they have going on, but wish some of the poppier elements were stripped back, El Moono is here for those people. And beyond that, despite shortcomings with a solid handful of tracks, the song writing on this debut album is impressive and ambitious, and certainly ahead of schedule when it comes to a band coming into their own. Long gone are the days of debut LPs this strong, but El Moono did not get the message.
7/10
You can pre-order The Waking Sun here, before it releases Friday, May 10th, via Interscope Records.