Album Review: Kæry Ann, Moonstone
Posted in Reviews on January 7th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Moonstone is the second full-length from Italian outfit Kæry Ann, and first for Subsound Records. It is the decidedly-heavy follow-up to 2023’s Songs of Grace and Ruin, and by that I mean both it’s rather heavy and feels like said weight of tone, emotion and atmosphere has been born out of a conscious push on the part of the band or their apparent core songwriter, guitarist/vocalist Erika Azzini. Three years ago, Kæry Ann would seem to have been a solo moniker for Azzini, collaborating with bassist Francesca Papi (also backing vocals on “Todeslied” and “Mariner’s Song” here), but with the seven songs and 38 minutes of Moonstone, as well as the inclusion of guitarist Davide Rosa and Fabio Orticoni, the project has evolved in terms of construction and style alike.
That’s a vague plot thread, and maybe wrong, but that kind of suits the material on the record itself, which takes the dark psych-folk jangle that permeated Songs of Grace and Ruin and solidifies it around a fuller and more encompassing roll; longer songs — lead single and album-centerpiece “Hero and Leander” is the shortest inclusion at 4:10, most cuts are in the five-to-six-minute range — taking their time to unfold and doing so with mindful impact and, in some cases, bombast. Without sacrificing fluidity, opener “Puritatem Tuam Interiorem Serva” casts an immediately voluminous impression, not subtle in the statement it’s making instrumentally and engaging doom from a post-metallic perspective and the kind of textured melodies that might have you hearing synth where there isn’t any. They drop the distortion for a clearer, quieter guitar line ahead of Azzini‘s self-harmonized verse, maintaining a bit of the ethereal in the folkish, in-Latin lyrics, and as one might expect, bring the heavier crash back around after building up behind the verse. The songs title translates as ‘Keep Your Inner Purity,’ and I haven’t seen a lyric sheet, but the mood is duly foreboding and indicative of what follows, leading into the shorter, punchier “Todeslied,” though that ‘punch’ should be read as mostly related to tempo.
The noise quotient in “Puritatem Tuam Interiorem Serva,” palpable by the time the band are paying off the build but more prevalent in the ending section, is likewise strongly representative of where Moonstone treads in terms of sound. Some of the brashest moments on the record, whether it’s the someone-in-this-band-likes-post-hardcore guitar figures peppered into “Hero and Leander” or the outright crush unfurled across the penultimate “Shores in Flames,” etc., serve to emphasize dynamic. But the fact that Kæry Ann are operating — presumably — in the studio with a full lineup, and the fact that the quieter stretches are highlighted by the contrast of the surrounding plod make the record resonate a diversity of approach that should not be lost in the conversation, however much the focus on ‘they got heavier’ might be justified.
An example of this working in Moonstone‘s favor is the apparently-depicted-on-the-cover (among other visual metaphors) closer “White Dress,” which conveys a more open space where some of the preceding tracks feel willfully bent toward the claustrophobic, before absolutely pummeling itself into a rich-but-still-oblivion oblivion. It’s not the first time Kæry Ann toy with the density of their own making, as “The Road” earlier bookends a more open middle with hard-landing intro and outro nod, and as emphasized from the transitions between pieces, “The Road” holding out into a fade and “Hero and Leander” picking up with full-volume, or “Mariner’s Song” finishing mostly cold with silence to give the more subdued intro of “Shores in Flames” its due space, the procession flows front to back even as Moonstone varies in terms of a given song’s destination.
Listeners with experience in doomgaze will find Moonstone of the emergent genre, but the exploratory aspect of the tracks that comprise it shouldn’t be discounted as a distinguishing factor, and neither should the alt-folky roots from whence the material has sprouted. However decisive the songs feel in the listening — there is no mistaking the sound of a band who know what they want to get out of their recording process, and Kæry Ann brim with this kind of self-awareness, at least outwardly — this is still just their second album, maybe the first with a full lineup (maybe not; I’m light on info/context if you can’t tell), and if the shift coming off of Songs of Grace and Ruin is indicative of anything, it’s that Azzini as a songwriter feels an artist’s need to grow and evolve. Kæry Ann, as a vehicle for conveying the realizations resultant from that in-progress evoution, may just be a step in a broader narrative of continued development. The sense I get in listening isn’t that Moonstone represents the end of Kæry Ann‘s scope so much as the initial embrace and recognition of it.
In part because of this, the album is engaging on multiple levels. It soothes melodically while moving earth with its tone, and gives a feeling of worldbuilding while holding firm to an emotive humanity. It is both place and substance, and whether it’s a herald of future direction for Kæry Ann or not — that is, wherever they go next or however they respond to the work they’ve done here — it is a crucial step along the band’s path, leaving none of its presented concepts unproven and, without sounding like it’s playing to aesthetic, cherrypicking which genre tenets it wants to adopt for its own. No question some of the appeal is cerebral, especially when one looks at the dark shimmer of Moonstone in relation to its predecessor, but if you look back at that the way “Puritatem Tuam Interiorem Serva,” “The Road” and “Hero and Leander” start all-in, right on the beat, you can see too how immediacy almost sneakily becomes part of making the band so effective in their delivery. They play back and forth in volume without making it too obvious or overly stark, honing noisy churn, outreach and flatten-you heft at the same time. Whatever the next step might be, it will be one to look out for.
