Blast Rites: MooM – Plague Infested Urban Dump Of The Future Review

According to an interview on Lixiviat Records’ site, the name “MooM” most closely translates into English as “defect” — the intended meaning being the “disadvantages of being born into this reality while being awake to its greed and corruption” — but it’s important to note that there’s certainly nothing defective about any part of this, not in the band and certainly not in Plague Infested Urban Dump Of The Future, not in the slightest. Many other words come to mind, but not that one.

One of the first that comes to mind is the exact opposite of defective, which is effective. By just about every metric, Plague Infested Urban Dump Of The Future is incredibly effective. At the crossroads of sludgy powerviolence, pummeling grind, and biting punk, MooM’s attack is a skull-cracking one, taking the best parts of all those styles – aggression, energy, power, connection – and molding them into a truly engaging hybrid, one that makes Urban Dump an absolutely electrifying listen, from top to bottom. This is seventeen songs in twenty minutes of crushing anger tempered with musical hooks big enough (and effective enough) to capture even the most ardent non-grinder. Blastbeats balance against bulldozer grooves; Sima’s bark cuts through like a klaxon, augmented by lower and throatier growls; the guitars are thick and filthy beasts, cycling through an array of catchy riffs. Every aspect of Plague Infested Urban Dump is highly effective, from composition to production to performance to presentation.

Another word that comes to mind here is affective. A potent expression of frustration and fury, Plague Infested Urban Dump is nothing if not emotive; the mood is anger, and the attitude is defiant, demanding better of society, of our governments, of each of us. These songs fly by, fast and fast and faster, but throughout the record, there are massive musical hooks. Those hooks pull the listener in immediately in the opening tribal drum intro (cleverly titled “Intro”), running headlong into the stuttering wallop and blistering punk drive of “Adom.” (Bear early witness here to Gad’s kickass metallic-clank bass tone, a secret weapon that pops up in some of Urban Dump’s best moments.) The mid-album tandem of “Ma Ye Hosef?” and “Ma Ye” form a sub-two-minute blast of knife-edge riffing and roiling manic intensity that is custom-made for releasing those emotions through mosh-pit destruction. That bass returns in the relentless swagger of “Ma Ha’tafkid,” another track built on a hook both crushing and catchy, and by the time the nearly-epic-length (by these standards) “Lo Babayt” closes Urban Dump with a second round of tribal drumming, these twenty minutes have been a beautifully cathartic whirlwind of rage.

 A final word that comes to mind is infective, as I’ve hinted at a few times already. This Plague Infested Urban Dump is infective in the sense that, in the furious summation of its seventeen components lie so many of those hooks, those certain almost indescribable twists that take hold of your ears and your brain and never let either go. Plague Infested Urban Dump Of The Future is easily my most-listened-to release of the early stages of 2024, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. It’s a massively strong first full-length from a band with three EPs and a split under their belt so far, by far the best entry in an already-strong catalog, and hands down a serious contender for a Top-20 year-ender.

M-o-o-M, kids. That spells “effective, affective, and infective powerviolence.” Get hooked.