Morass Of Molasses – End All We Know
Release Date: 24th March 2023
Label: Ripple Music
Bandcamp
Genre: Stoner, Blues, Folk.
FFO: Orange Goblin, Green Lung, Black Tusk.
Review By: Rob Woodhouse
Reading’s purveyors of the stickiest swamp riffs, Morass Of Molasses, are back with their third full length album. Filled with the usual bluesy riffs but with equal amounts of departures to new pastures, End All We Know gives us our first glimpse of where Morass Of Molasses are heading in this post-pandemic world.
Don’t judge a book by its cover and all that… but we know that a great album cover really gets us metal maniacs immediately interested in a new release. Kriss Putter has put in one hell of a shift on this album art. At first glance, it may look like the Morass of Molasses guys have just been voted out of the jungle, but the dark and moody piece of work captures the album vibe nicely. The green forests against the dystopian backdrop are a distinct contrast, and that is the buzzword for End All We Know. It’s an album of contrasts.
Most stoner, desert et al. band reviews follow a similar path. Think big bulging riffs, heavy low-end, psych-filled fuzz and a laid back attitude and, as much as we love this type of music, you’ve pretty much described most bands on the scene.
You can’t fob Morass Of Molasses off with such generic patter. They stray from the path as much as they tread it, and it’s this contrast that makes them exciting and unpredictable…
One minute we’re raging through the gloopy swamps of bluesy sludge with a Black Tusk style urgency, such as the raucous straight forward clatter of Hellfayre. Shortly after, we’re skipping through fields of cotton candy with a prog-heavy and care-free attitude and Ian Anderson’s flute in full flow. Check out Terra Nova for a momentary lighter side of End All We Know.
The variation in light and dark and bitter and sweet in the record displays distinct differences in style and approach, but never seems forced or unnatural. Morass of Molasses do not do this just to be a bit quirky, the rough and the smooth intertwine effortlessly for a bulging scope in sound. As the album’s PR blurb states: End All We Know is “Born equally from the fertile ashes of frustration as the illuminating light of hope.”
As much as we love all this beautiful mosaic of styles; the jaunty little number that is Sinkhole is a corker of a track. It’s a bit of a peculiar subject, but the angular riffs will have your head banging straight away.
So, in short, End We All Know is a bloody great album and sees Morass Of Molasses just getting better and more confident with their ever-growing sound. The unique blends the band put into their work certainly makes them stand out from the pack, and they’ve never sounded quite so accomplished as this.
(4.5 / 5)
