Band: Moonlight Lily
Location: New York, New Jersey
Country: USA
Genre: Alternative gothic metal
Single: The Hollow
Format: Digital track, promotional lyric video
Label: Independent
Release date: October 19, 2023
This is the first I heard from Moonlight Lily since their single and video “Masquerade” from 2021. When the band contacted me letting me know about the October premiere of “The Hollow” I figured I’d watch the lyric video.
I remember the former song was a mixture of goth metal, alt rock, groove and emo metal composed by musicians from a background as diverse as the influences they brought into it. It was also heavily emotionally driven, especially when it came to devotion, with mesmerizing poetics based in fantasy and reality. This is as much a part of their sound in “The Hollow”, which tones down the dark qualities I heard before and drives the vocals toward more melodic turf, but keeps the heavy, hypnotic and transcendental metaphysics I became familiar with before.
There are more keyboards than I remember, and they broaden those distinguishing qualities with atmosphere and ambience that enshrouds you in the universe created through the band’s writing. This transformation feels not only like something that hasn’t quite expired, but is growing and adapting to the corporeal with the passage of time. This feeling is made even more immersive with the lyrics, “Old gods changing names/old devils wearing new faces/shake them from the slumber/let us trade places/I don’t hurt when I fall/I don’t feel sorry/stitching back the pieces/stealing back my glory”.
The transformation captured in the lyrics and expressed through the instruments feels like a magical metamorphosis from a dead caterpillar to a living butterfly. The graphics made for the video, which appear to be AI generated but I could be wrong, help push this idea further. They’re really striking and give the impression of something hiding in the deep dark forest finally awaiting its moment of rebirth as the surrounding grayness starts to regain color and texture. The instant the sun returns, you see solitude give way to companionship and a feeling the dead forest is home again.
It’s a profound statement for a video that you have to witness firsthand to absorb the effect it means to have on you. –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Iva: Vocals, synthesizers, lyrics
Ed: Guitars, bass
Vlad: Drums
Well written and informative. It made me want to sample the misc. Good job.
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