Aryel Moon Craft a Chronicle of Love and Loss in Debut EP 'Welcome Home'
- Elizabeth Guest
- Dec 2
- 2 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Dublin four piece Aryel Moon recently released their debut EP Welcome Home, a five track concept piece charting a love affair. Elizabeth Guest reviews.
A band who can be regarded as one of Dublin’s bright bastions of the grunge genre, Aryel Moon are swiftly building a swirling reputation on the Irish capital’s live circuit. Through a musical matrimony of 90s grunge intensity to uplifting melodies, Aryel Moon have successfully crafted a sound that is both caressing and calamitous.
With the lineup of vocalist and guitarist Donatella Camedda, guitarist Luca Masi, bassist Stefano Vita and drummer Nando Alonso, Aryel Moon have recently released the latest installment of their burgeoning discography. Their debut, five track EP, Welcome Home, chronicles the legs of a love affair - from the first fluttering of butterflies to the emotional turmoil of heartbreak.
From its opening notes, Welcome Home oozes with grunge-laced reverence, a feat evidenced in the EP’s first track, little bit closer. With Camedda’s velvet vocals being unleashed alongside chiming guitars, the track brims with palpable romantic optimism. little bit closer positively glows with the rushes of both excitement and apprehension that encircle a new relationship, as Camedda questions “Will we go too fast? / Will we ride the wave?”.
Yet, Camedda overcomes the aforementioned pangs of doubt as the EP’s title track reaches a love fuelled crescendo. As a softer, more stripped back track, welcome home glimmers with warm instrumentation, with the listener able to float away on a more mellow breeze. Evidently, Aryel Moon have found a person who makes them feel truly at home, with the single being a truly emotive number.
Both the love affair in question and Welcome Home reach a head simultaneously. With an increase in tempo comes an increase in infatuation, as right inside me bears both shredding guitar and a rolling thunder of percussion, along with Camedda’s loaded, Courtney Love-like delivery. However, it is the sudden swap from guitar to piano keys on nevermind that signal that love’s end is nigh. Throughout the track, Alfonso’s drums take on an almost cardiac quality, acting as an audible representation of heartbreak’s heaviness. nevermind has melancholy at its core.
The final nail in love’s coffin arrives in a PJ Harvey shaped package, with Aryel Moon covering the songstress’ 2004 single, Shame. Layers of rippling bass, hypnotic guitar and poignant vocals serve to mimic love’s peaks and troughs, with the track acting as a fitting closer for an impassioned and intimate debut release.
A concept album in nature, Welcome Home succeeds in chronicling the all consuming arc of love, with Aryel Moon’s lyrics of introspection and infatuation cutting through heavy guitars with an all mighty flourish.
Recorded in the band’s rehearsal room and produced by Vita, Welcome Home is an authentic yet viscerally sanguine release from the Dublin based four piece.
Welcome Home is available on CD here:
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