With the release of their last album Crux, New York-based progressive rockers Moon Tooth firmly established themselves as an upcoming force to be reckoned with on the prog rock and metal scene. Now, three years and one pandemic later, the group are ready to unveil their follow-up album Phototroph.
From a thematic point of view, it is a departure from early work – departing from the proclaimed “crossroads of negative shit” in favour of an album that is all about “walking from the middle and picking a brighter path.” Inspired by vocalist John Carbone’s time working on a nature reserve, “Phototroph” centres itself around the theme of plants; growing ever towards the light.
“Soothingly gentile yet heavy and agitated” is how the band describe opening track, I Revere, and defiantly remaining in a musical style of its own, much akin to the band’s earlier work, it is a song that opens up the album perfectly. Striking a perfect balance between heavy and melodic; a perfect balance between darkness and light, seems only too fitting for a song about that very theme. Listeners may immediately be reminded of the likes of Pain of Salvation or even Gojira as the album delves from this opening motif into a harder hitting, more progressive sound with ‘Back Burner’.
It is interesting that we reach almost the midway point of the album before hearing any of its four lead singles. The fact that the album stays strong for so long without needing to sandwich in one of its “stronger” songs speaks waves, however, especially for a “weird metal band”, as Moon Tooth have been described. It is then the sign of a good “weird metal band”, that they can show us a whole four tracks before going for the big numbers. ‘Alpha Howl’ opens with a strongly heavy riff before leaping into a more melodic vocal line and more experimental time signatures for the verses – as a definitive feature of Moon Tooth’s sound that still manages to hit hard even as the listener begins getting used to it. Actually, ‘Alpha Howl’ even managed to strike up the idea in a listener’s mind that Moon Tooth are a band that can and should be experimenting more with polyrhythms; something that would make for a really interesting sound.
Yet despite the self-described “weird” musical elements, the heavy riffs, and the complicated rhythms, Moon Tooth as a band achieve their goal of producing an album that fits the theme of moving from darkness towards light. The whole album has an undeniably positive tone, which is even more exemplified when listening in full as opposed to select tracks. As vocalist John Carbone describes that he wants Moon Tooth to be something positive, one cannot deny that the music they put out is certainly uplifting, in a uniquely, “weird metal” sort of way.
Guitarist and backing vocalist Nick Lee states in the album notes that although his goals are humble and he’s happy to be in a band with his friends performing music he loves around the whole of the US, he feels that Moon Tooth are a band that deserves to go internationally big in the same vein as Metallica. Whilst that may seem like an ambitious goal for even the most dedicated of musicians, Phototroph is an album that shows Moon Tooth going from success to success, and they may well reach that goal yet. At any rate, we welcome the idea of seeing them tour over here in Europe anytime soon.