One Hundred Moons descend into the haze on exceptional album, "Black Avalanche"
With Black Avalanche, Toronto’s One Hundred Moons deliver one of those rare records that feels both instantly familiar and entirely its own. From start to finish it’s an onslaught of dreamy distortion, endless emotion, and an alt-rock grit that hits with the force of its album name. It pulls you in and honestly doesn’t let go until the final notes fade on “Into Nowhere”
From the first moments, you can hear the swirl of shoegaze, the cerebral tension of ’90s experimental rock, and the shimmering melancholy of dream-pop. But One Hundred Moons, made up of Collin Young, Jen Vella, Justin Hunt, Matt Laplante, and NJ Borreta aren’t imitators in the slightest. They’ve taken the DNA of their favorites like My Bloody Valentine and Radiohead and warped it into something fresh, raw, and “distinctly Toronto”. The city’s eclectic scene pulses beneath the surface.
The record’s nine tracks are a hybrid rock that never overwhelms but instead mesmerizes. The production is dense without being suffocating, allowing the sound to bloom outward in waves. It’s a transportive listen, one that invites you to sink deeper with every passing minute. Of course the influences are there and in your face, but it’s more of a subtle nod than anything.
A major part of Black Avalanche’s power comes from its vocal approach. The lofi vocals drift in and out of the mix, sometimes haunting, sometimes comforting, but always essential to keeping you on your toes. The delivery becomes another instrument in the band’s arsenal. It’s a ghostly, intimate presence threading through the noise. Instead of dominating the songs, the vocals dissolve into them, adding a warmth as that guitar screeches through in the foreground!
Themes of longing, transformation, and emotional disorientation ripple throughout, expressed not in blunt statements but in mood, space, and texture. One Hundred Moons prove that you don’t need lyrical verbosity to tell a powerful story; sometimes the tone of the track sums it up as much as it needs to.
Just when a moment feels like it might collapse, a burst pushes through like on “Death of the Party” or “Shade of Night”. When the guitars feel ready to swallow everything whole, a delicate melody or glimmering synth pierces the mix. It’s a balancing act few bands at this stage pull off, let alone with such confidence.
They’ve built something so perfect here, you’d be a fool not to experience it front to back uninterrupted. Black Avalanche is an outstanding work of art from a band clearly hitting its stride. If this is the sound of rising Toronto talent, the rest of the world should start paying very close attention.
It’s the type of music we love to enjoy in our “off time”, so adding this into the mix is going to be an absolute treat. Go ahead and check it out for yourselves and click those links below to follow along for more!
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