Danish quintet MØL is back with brand new album ”Dreamcrush”. Five years after the release of ”Diorama”, the blackgaze band has returned with again an album that is not set for one simple genre nor style.
Having dreams can sustain you and give you something to believe in. Everyone loves to dream and have dreams. ”DREAM” has a beautiful intro of 1 minute 20 which can be put straight into the beginning of an adventurous movie or something like that. The intro gets interrupted by a good old scream from front singer Kim Song Sternkopf who continues to show his growling skills and his singing skills back to back. But mostly ”DREAM” gives the talented other members the credits they deserved by serving as mostly an instrumental song.
”Hud”, which means skin, starts completely different. It has a slow intro and Sternkopf sings the verses and growls the chorus. I get the feeling the song is about pain and lost due to the slow rhythm and the emotions you can hear in the lyrics.
The complete song is in Danish, and I don’t know about you. But my Danish is rusty, so I gave google translate the honours this time. With lines like : escape from myself, when i find home and eat me from within. I think we can conclude that ”Hud” is a song about pain and lost and feeling lost.
I like it when a band knows that you don’t always have to use lyrics or a voice to express themselves. The major thing with growling is, that I always find it a bit of a struggle to hear what the actual lyrics are any way compared to non growling voices.
”Favour” is one of those songs that doesn’t need a lot of lyrics to feel the emotions. It has a bit of an eerie intro but switches quickly to some good guitar work by Nicolai Hansen and Sigurd Kehlet and really gives them a stage to show their skills. At 2.22 minute we will hear Sternkopf joining the party for a short period of 1 minute and then we set the focus back on the instruments and we finish the song with a good guitar solo.
Ken Klejs shows his drumming skills in the intro of ”A Former Blueprint” and I like the different sides of this band cause this song feels a bit more mainstream (No Offence) than the rest of the album. With a catchy melody and a bit more up beat rhythm, this song makes me longing for lovely sunny days and festivals.
Opening with some guitar skills by Hansen and Kehlet and some normal singing verses by Sternkopf to a switch by the chorus to growling and some rougher guitar work. ”Dissonance” is a song about losing hope, having no perspective and I think the combination of the growling combined with the singing parts really reflects the emotions the band used during the creation of this album.
On to the longest song of the album and the final song as well. ”CRUSH” feels like the end product of this complete journey that is this album. There is a good switch and balance between growling and singing and the guitars also switches between different rhythms and melodies.
One of the musicians that always get the least credit cause they not always get their own moment to shine are the bass players. Holger Rumph Frost does an amazing job during the whole album and during ”CRUSH” I had the impression I was able to hear a bit more of the talent he has. ”CRUSH” is a bit bombastic after each chorus and it slowly fades away by the end. Maybe a metaphor for the dreams we can have that we never change into an actual plan?
Having dreams can sustain you, give you something to believe, but the weight of expectation, the burden of reality can also mean that such dreams can become oppressive. They can easily shatter you in the end. ”DREAMCRUSH” serves as the journey through this beautiful dreams to the pain, sadness and grief that comes with lost dreams and hopes as well. Due to the massive difference between each song due to the lyrics switching from Danish to English but also the different musical styles it reflects all these different feelings and emotions. But nonetheless MØL shows with ”DREAMCRUSH” that no matter what we must never lose hope and that we have to keep on dreaming despite everything.
Rating: 8/10
Release Date: 30th January 2026
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Writer: Milou
Tracklist:
- DREAM
- små forlis
- Young
- Hud
- Garland
- Favour
- A Former Blueprint
- ꚙ
- Dissonance
- Mimic
- CRUSH
