20 Best Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Albums Of 2018 (So Far)
18. The Atlas Moth – Coma Noir
1940s film noir is one of my favourite styles/eras of filmmaking. There’s nothing more satisfying to a Film Studies student like myself than that one time Hollywood decided to do a total 180 on itself during World War Two and make some of the most nihilistic films in US history. The end result speaks for itself: simply, some of the greatest motion pictures of all time, including Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon, Kiss Me Deadly, The Third Man and countless more!
What does this have to do with The Atlas Moth’s Coma Noir? Why, everything, silly! The Chicago sludgers’ new album is a loose concept disc inspired by the old-school film noir, telling of a hard-boiled detective tracking a shadowy cult.
The music is similarly oddball. With hints of doom, sludge and post-metal all around, it’s a dark journey that matches the monochromatic, low-key imagery of the cinema it is dedicated to.
Musically reminiscent of such names as Paradise Lost and Junius, Coma Noir is eerie, otherworldly and mysterious, with weird, postmodern interludes only punctuating the heavy grooves of the title track and “Galactic Brain”.