Upon Stone's Top 10 Album Influences for "Dead Mother Moon"

January 18, 2024

Upon Stone's Dead Mother Moon is poised to usher in a new age of melodic death metal. The once maligned and oft misunderstood genre has found a new home outside of its native Gothenburg, Sweden, in the recent and unlikely extreme metal hotbed of Los Angeles, California.

The band's first full-length album, following a successful EP (Where Wild Sorrows Grow), Dead Mother Moon touches upon what made Swedish melodic death metal great and injects it with some American hardcore tendencies (without making the band sound like 2000s melodic metalcore, which is pretty cool). There are soulful solos and instances of "the riff" (melodic death metal fans know), but also chugging, grooving parts and barked vocals. It all feels very natural for melodic death metal to follow death metal's hardcore-oriented revival, but we wanted to know more about what makes Upon Stone the band they are, so we asked them to list off the ten most influential albums they feel aided in the creation of Dead Mother Moon, which you can stream and read about below.

–Jon Rosenthal

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1. At The Gates – Terminal Spirit Disease

It’s safe to say that this record is the main reason Upon Stone formed. This was the album on repeat when we thought of the idea to even start this band. Each song on this record is incredible and truly captures what melodeath is all about. This record is where At The Gates started to find their signature sound that they mastered on Slaughter of the Soul. The signature alternate picking riffs and skank beats that ended up structuring so many melodeath bands' sounds in the late 90’s really started to stand out here. This record is by far the biggest influence on Upon Stone and will continue to be so.

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2. In Flames - Whoracle

Not only is Whoracle the sleeper gem in the flawless In Flames back catalog, but it is also by far the most directly influential on Dead Mother Moon. Everything there is to love about proper 90’s Gothenburg metal is present on that record in a way that feels catchy, energetic, and vital. We did our best to echo those sentiments on our LP by making every riff and moment matter with songs worth coming back to time and time again. Those early In Flames LP’s and their iconic album covers were also the main source of inspiration in us asking Andreas Marschall to create the artwork for Dead Mother Moon. A bucket list moment for us as a band.

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3. Dissection – Reinkaos

There are very few albums that are completely perfect, and to us Reinkaos is one of those albums. The Dissection discography is an absolute pillar of influence for Upon Stone, and their genius swansong Reinkaos reaches a level of excellence that feels almost unattainable. For that reason, this album sits on a pedestal of perfection in our eyes. The emphasis on traditional metal leaning song structures and profoundly spiritual lyrics were particularly influential to us during the creation of Dead Mother Moon.

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4. Amon Amarth – Versus the World

This album was on repeat non-stop throughout the writing process of Dead Mother Moon. This album is when Amon Amarth really started to incorporate the epic hooks they’re so well known for while delivering some of their most crushing riffs. We had their song structures on this record in mind a lot during the writing process, especially on our song "My Destiny; A Weapon."

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5. Unanimated - Ancient God Of Evil

This record front to back is incredible and a huge influence on our band and Dead Mother Moon in particular. Equal parts aggressive, dark, and melodic, which is what we also strive to deliver with our own songs. Listening to "Life Demise" hits just as hard today as it did hearing it for the first time in the early 2000’s on the Haggard soundtrack.

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6. Naglfar – Vittra

'90s melodic black metal is a huge influence on our music and in our opinion, this record has some of the best guitar melodies of the genre. This album was a reference on how we wanted the production of our own to sound. It’s not often you can get an album to sound like how the album art looks, but Vittra is a prime example of that and transports you to the same enchanted woods on the cover with every listen. That’s something we wanted to capture with Dead Mother Moon.

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7. Empyrium - Where At Night The Wood Grouse Plays

The world of European neofolk music has always been incredibly intriguing and influential on Upon Stone even from the beginning of the band. While it might not seem completely obvious musically, both lyrically and thematically, bands like Empyrium, Of The Wand & The Moon and many others have inspired the esthetics of our band in a big way. The melancholic neoclassical flare and nocturnal imagery found within Where At Night The Wood Grouse Plays were definitely on the mind when creating the world of Dead Mother Moon.

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8. Eucharist - Mirrorworlds

Perhaps no other Swedish melodic death metal classic carries the same emotional weight and intensity as Mirrorworlds. It’s a record that feels poignant and bloodthirsty at the same time. A real lightning in a bottle type of energy on that album played so authentically and urgently. Mirrorworlds is 10/10 example of sorrow and brutality coming together to create something truly special and still unmatched. It became a mission on Dead Mother Moon to retain that same type of authenticity with both fury and despair throughout the album.

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9. Gary Moore – The Wild Frontier

When it came to finding the inspiration for the solos on the album I definitely reached for one of my favorite albums of all time, The Wild Frontier by Gary Moore. I wanted to make the solo sections feel like another verse or melody in the song and Gary was always the best at that. His solos were just so memorable and singable while still showing off his incredible shred skills. The heavy influence Gary had from traditional Irish folk music also always gave his playing such a mystical feeling, and a mystic feeling was definitely something we strove for as a whole with this Album.

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10. Blind Guardian – Follow the Blind

"Valhalla!! Deliverance!!" was randomly chanted at least once every time we were together working on the album. Blind Guardian has been a very big influence on us, and if you think about it, they kinda helped lay down the foundation of melodeath. Lightning speed tremolo picked rhythm guitars topped with neo-classical minstrel leads being carried by never-ending double kick. Follow The Blind while feeling very epic and magical, is also one of Blind Guardian’s more aggressive and raw sounding albums. That was definitely a sound we tried to capture while recording and writing this album.