DEVIL'S LABYRINTH

Finnish space rock band Moonwagon are still going strong. The third album The Rule of Three (2015) was the first one by the trio line-up (after the departure of synth wizard Ami Hassinen) and marked slightly rockier sound. This new five-track EP misses about ten minutes to be counted as a proper album, but it's a worthy release nevertheless. The title track starts in a very ballsy way with heavy drumming and roaring guitars & bass. Despite the evil title, it's rather uplifting guitar-oriented hard rocker with gorgeous synth passages. There are also a little bit of vocals, shouting one sentence a few time in the background. An unnecessary and very Hawkwind-like feature.

'Haunted Hallways' has a vibrating organ in the foreground. Roughly midway there's a delicious proggier section featuring glockenspiel, and towards the end psychedelic synth work finishes the trippy effectiveness of the composition. 'Alchemy' features bouzouki and ukulele to make it a very fresh and original. I've always appreciated the way Moonwagon combines spaceyness and more down-to-earth elements totally sovereignly. The briefest track 'Dus Aster' is a pure synth piece reminiscent of VANGELIS and JARRE, a delightful step aside from the rock orientation.

It changes seamlessly into the 8-minute 'South of Bermuda' that offers more of the hard-boiled space rock (some angry voice again...) that would get boring if there wasn't also pretty cool synth parts. As this track takes almost one third of the total length, and it misses the freshness of other tracks, my rating remains three stars. I hope Moonwagon won't steer their style more towards the vocal-added, beat-heavy Hawkwind territory and thus decrease their originality.