Hailing from Denmark, the up-and-coming blackgaze outfit MØL might soon become the genre’s poster child, if their new album “Dreamcrush” is anything to judge by. I reckon their American cousins, DEAFHEAVEN, nicked the mantle with their haunting new album “Lonely People with Power,” last year. The trajectory of these Danes seems to have an ever-steepening slope upward with no end in sight, however. Their 2018 debut, “Jord,” had a seismic impact on the scene, so Nuclear Blast scooped them up for their sophomore release, “Diorama,” in 2021. Of course, I was blissfully unaware of their music at the time, but their latest offering, released on January 31st, 2026, after a 5-year absence, not only popped onto my music radar but proved to be such an incredible experience that there’s no way I could pass up the chance to hail it as the true masterpiece it is. If those earlier installments in their discography positioned MØL as a straight-up rival to DEAFHEAVEN, the new album heads to a different direction entirely. The highly abrasive guitar riffs of black metal, the gold standard of the genre, have been traded off for a tad more shoegazey flavor. Without the harsh vocals, you could easily be fooled into believing you were listening to some hidden gems from the 1990s alternative scene. The pristine production might tip you off that this is something way more contemporary, but the songcraft owes a good deal to that particular decade – right off the bat, in fact; for the life of me, I cannot remember the name of this one synth-driven song by the British post-punk-esque, alternative band, RIDE, probably from the early or mid-1990s, but the opener of this new selection, “DREAM,” instantly triggered some hazy flashbacks of it. Not bad, I would reckon. (Now, I guess I really have no other choice but to rummage through RIDE‘s whole back catalog in order to find that very song…)
After the high-octane riffer, “Young,” which side-steps briefly into an almost LAMB-OF-GOD-esque realm not only because of its groovy riffs but also because of those somewhat Randy Blythe-esque vocals, the mid section of the album cools things down a good bit: “Hud” alternates between ethereal verses and punchy choruses; the lead single, “Garland,” begins like a homage to vintage THE SMASHING PUMPKINS before the vocals take on a more black-metal-tinted flavor again; lastly, “Favour” unfolds like an arena-rock ballad that could have made Axl Rose jealous of those black-metal snarls back in 1994. I’m pretty sure that name-dropping these particular artists in the same sentence is not something that you would feel compelled to do very often.
And speaking of the vocals, it is one of the most delicious nuances in MØL‘s signature sound that sets them far apart from the average blackgaze endeavor. Kim Song Sternkopf‘s vocal delivery has improved substantially from the previous efforts, in terms of both range and emotional impact. On occasion, his harsh vocals resonate with the subtle air of Grutle Kjellson of ENSLAVED, whose goblin snarls hit the mark somewhere between death-metal growls and black-metal shrieks. On top of this, his clean vocals that adorn the mellow sections are just as ethereal as you would expect from such an emotionally driven blackgaze album. A fine case in point would be the song “Dissonance,” boasting both ends of the vocal spectrum in nothing short of a brilliant fashion. I’m not necessarily the most qualified person to dissect the fundamentals of the blackgaze aesthetic since I’m such a Johnny-come-lately to the scene, but for me, there is something irresistible in the unholy marriage of shoegazey dream-pop and black metal.
Coming to think about it, one of the highlights of the album, “A Former Blueprint,” might actually have felt right at home on ENSLAVED‘s experimental 2020 album “Utgard.” Then again, without the heavy distortion and harsh vocals, the song would have been just as good a fit for, say, BLOC PARTY‘s indie classic “Silent Alarm” from 2004. I guess that speaks volumes for MØL‘s unique strain of blackgaze – post-punk-tinged Brit-pop mixed with black metal? Well, why the hell not?! If the band set out to defy genre stereotypes with this new endeavor, they most certainly succeeded. I know it’s a bit early to fathom things like that, but if I were to include just one black-metal-flavored album in my end-of-the-year lists of 2026, there is a mighty good chance that MØL‘s new album will be that very item. If something is going to conquer that position over it, that album sure as hell needs to be something spectacular – black metal or not.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- DREAM
- Små Forlis
- Young
- Hud
- Garland
- Favour
- A Former Blueprint
- ∞
- Dissonance
- Mimic
- CRUSH
Lineup
Kim Song Sternkopf – vocals
Nicolai Busse – guitars
Holger Frost – bass, guitars
Ken Lund Klejs – drums
Sigurd Kehlet – guitars
Label
Nuclear Blast
