It was only a few months ago that Naked was getting gloomy with his latest full-length Hopeless. Now he’s back with fellow Baltimore mopers Mother Moon for a split EP that is “23 minutes of pure agony.” And in addition to sharing a city, Mother Moon and Naked also have a similar knack for taking ambient-leaning shoegaze and smearing it over with the metal genre’s dark pigments.

The second of the band’s two track contributions, “Pieces of You,” crunches and writhes and echoes before rolling itself over and showing you its true face. And what at first seems knotted and gnarled soon reveals itself to be rather beautiful and melodic. Its soaring vocals and reverb compliment each other nicely even as the track reverts back and forth between layers of pained distortion. The split is a shadowy release no doubt, but to call it pure agony seems a bit off the mark, especially when considering it ends on such a gorgeous note.