The Black Map #174: Moon Reaper from Bristol!

A couple of weeks back Bristol based Moon Reaper finally released their debut EP “Descent” after a wealth of false dawn’s and line up changes that caused no end of delays. Their inception in 2018 was very much as the brainchild of vocalist and seven string guitarist Morgan Cradick, who is joined by Aidan Rutter (Bass), Zack Esposito (Drums) and Noah Burns (Guitar) to form a quartet who like to play on the Cosmic thematic while crossing Metal sub-genres with more regularly than booze passing an alcoholics lips. Loosely described as Progressive Blackened Doom band in some quarters they’ve channelled their aggression and blended the  colours and blurred the lines between Doom, Post, Progressive, Black, Downtempo, Deathcore, DJent, Death and Sludge Metal with “Descent” with slick transitions meaning that everything falls into place like the finest of jigsaw puzzles. The change up from their dipping of toes in the water stand-alone first single “Torture Chamber” released at the tail end of 2019 is huge, the comparison between that an the new material showing not only a stylistic leap but also an improvement in all round craft that has come with dedication and time. Working with producer Kray Zellinger Mundy of Liquid State from the very beginning of the project has seen the band thrive while influences as broad as Conjurer, Pantera, Motorhead and The Drowning have all fueled the creative fire. Keep your eyes peeled for more from this band, they are on the path to greatness.