Santa Cruz’s Moirai were another prime example of sick ass bands who were too weird or strange to be “cool”, and who, while in existence, flew completely under everyone’s radar, opting to disband in the end and going criminally unnoticed. These types of things are unacceptable crimes, so here we are, doing what is right and trying to introduce their sick music to as many people as possible, even if the band has decided to call it quits. Moirai were one of the coolest hardcore bands I’d seen around the Bay Area in recent years, and believe me, their recordings never really touched the raw intensity and heaviness of their live performances. As is often with bands from Santa Cruz, their music was weird, genre-defying and unique. Their downtuned, sludgy, and angular hardcore was hard to pin down, and reminded me at times of Flipper, at times of the Melvins, other times of Black Flag, and in certain moments also of bands like The Jesus Lizard, Unsane, and Big Black. Heavy and unrelenting, their music always inevitably ended up with a weird and grim twist, like a disheartening tale of horror and defeat, and becoming cerebral, enigmatic and extremely unpredictable at the same time…
These were the premises of the sound at least, but then inevitably within their music things often took a harrowing turn, ending up in a dark and fucked up place, and dragging the listener with them, to their own nightmares, paranoias and horrors. It’s here that scathing grind/powerviolence and unwelcoming black metal reared its ugly head within the band’s music, painting a final picture of turgid ferocity and of immeasurable hopelessness. The four tracks of their Entropy EP (recorded by Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer in Oakland, and the second release to follow their debut self titled demo) will likely be the last you will ever hear of this band, but we strongly believe that the trauma left within you from this listen will be permanent. RIP.
