MossI haven’t really crossed paths with Moss since Cthonic Rites and Sub Templum. It wasn’t a great falling out, just that rather like Centurion’s Ghost they were a band I totally understood why they had so many enthusiastic fans but just didn’t share said enthusiasm. [Think it’s more than fair to say both bands would be horrified to have any actual comparisons made between them Pete Ed]  Kind of a take it or leave it situation. Roll on 2013 and I’m fairly shocked to discover that there have only been a couple of EPs and a live album in between. They are still happily on Rise Above though so they must be doing OK.

Apart from that I genuinely wouldn’t have recognised this as Moss. I even gave my copy of Sub Templum a spin to be sure. That was gravity crushing, slow, slab-dragging sludge/drone from the bottom of the pit with a kind of death/doom mentality and tortured vocals. This opens with the title track and is slightly slower Dopethrone era Electric Wizard with those predominantly clean, crying out vocals and a snail-pace riff. That fuzzed out, dredged up sludge tone is gone, though, and the riff rises up and breathes light air much more. It is curiously… well not light exactly, Moss still drop concrete on you from a fair height, but this is fairly laid back by the standards of them and their peers. The vocals lend it a certain strung out quality, which is good, but the riffs don’t so much drive or pull as simply fill the space. Maybe I’m trying to define a lack of intensity but that isn’t quite the case. Not totally. More as though I am viewing this through bullet proof glass and this pulls apart some off the density and bleeds off the atmosphere.

It’s OK though; the rhythm section keeps this securely anchored, the riffing is solid but… by the time I get half way through to the end of ‘Dark Lady’ the realisation is there that this has been three songs that have deviated little if at all from the riff they start with and it is getting to be tough going even if the riffs are initially good. The paradox with the extreme end of sludge, drone and doom is that for all its belligerent heads down crushing weight, the music is often about nuance, or even groove, and neither reaches out for me here. ‘Dreams From The Depths’ does provide a few minutes of respite, a nicely cavernous sound of isolated notes but instead of leading me to some subterranean cavern and utterly crushing or mesmerizing me we are back to a not bad but not inspiring song in Coral Off Chaos. Closing song ‘I Saw Them That Night’ had a little more twisting to it with feedback but not enough to fully re-engage me.

It is hard for me to say but really I just don’t gel with this at all. It’s OK, but almost shallow for this kind of music, little seeming to be working away beneath that riff and the atmosphere leaking away as the intensity fails. I have heard similar bands putting out similar fairly uninspiring doom but here I am frustrated becauseI know Moss are capable of crushing spines and so much more with their music.

No I will have to pass on this. Sorry guys.

(5/10 Gizmo)

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