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Moss, Horrible Night: The Bleeding Years and Other Tales of Terror

Posted in Reviews on April 4th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

It’s been five long years since Southampton, UK, doomers Moss debuted on Rise Above Records with their sophomore album, Sub Templum, and though the band issued a couple EPs and the Never Say Live live album since that release, they’ve been silent since 2010 and emerge now with a new outlook on the full-length Horrible Night. Still aligned to Rise Above, the trio of Olly Pearson (vocals), Dominic Finbow (guitar) and Chris Chantler (drums) have shifted away from the deathly influences that typified their many earlier works in favor of cleaner singing and a darkly psychedelic, cultish sprawl. Where Sub Templum was comprised of four tracks totaling nearly 74 minutes, Horrible Night is more efficient on the whole, clocking in at just over 54 with six tracks, none of which go much past 11. That’s quite a change from songs like “Gate III: Devils from the Outer Dark,” which closed the prior outing at an insurmountable 35:31, but the bigger shift is in Moss‘ actual aesthetic, which is more atmospheric than in the past and echoing its abysmal feel rather than bludgeoning with volume. In some ways, Horrible Night has more in common with latter-day Electric Wizard than did Sub Templum, which was produced by that band’s vocalist, Jus Oborn, but Moss show comparatively little of the same psychotic pop fascination. Songs here like “Dark Lady” and opener “Horrible Nights” have choruses that are memorable and engaging as much as this kind of feedback-drenched morass can be or wants to be, but they’re never rushing to get to them. Or to anywhere else, for that matter.

That’s one factor that Moss have kept consistent with their prior output — they are slowMoss take ultra-thick plod and let it ride for however long they feel it needs to, and while one could easily consider Horrible Night an overall more manageable or accessible record than its predecessor, it’s hardly a comfortable listen. Weary, sluggish groove pervades the verse of “Horrible Nights” (note the ‘S’ at the end, where the title of the album is singular) as Pearson tops Finbow‘s guitar with Sabbathian lines, buried deep but still cutting through the mix, caked in reverb. I suppose compared to some of what Moss has done, this is fast, but put to the scale of most anything else, its lurching still qualifies as extreme — and it’s also probably the most accessible moment of the record — even as it moves into wailing guitar leads and malevolent screams in the second half, feedback setting a bed for chaos reminiscent of early The Wounded Kings at their bleakest or the first Cough full-length. If I’m comparing Moss, who’ve been around for over a decade, to bands getting their start, it’s because they essentially are. Horrible Night covers new ground for them, and even if on paper, their latest work shares elements they’ve used in the past, the reality of the situation makes for a much, much different listen, “Horrible Nights” even going so far as to return to its verse at the end, giving the second half’s chaos a sense of purpose and symmetry as the fadeout leads to the beginning of “The Bleeding Years,” even slower and more ill-meaning.

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Moss’ Horrible Night Due April 2

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 5th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

Continuing Rise Above‘s partnership with Metal Blade in the US, British doomers Moss will release Horrible Night on April 2. For anyone who heard their last full-length, 2008’s Sub Templum, take a listen to “Horrible Nights” below and you might be surprised at the cleaner vocals and less general blownout-ness, but the current of extreme doom nonetheless runs strong within the track and presumably the album as a whole. It’s been five years, but some stuff never changes.

The PR wire hath decreed:

Southampton, UK doom trio, MOSS, set to release “Horrible Night” on April 2nd

First gathered together in Southampton in the year 2000 – with the formative ambition of being slower and heavier than the slowest, heaviest band you can think of – MOSS is known for unleashing true audial darkness and claustrophobia upon their listeners. The crypt-crushing, drug-crazed occult horror sound of 2005’s Cthonic Rites, 2008’s Sub Templum, 2009’s Tombs Of The Blind Drugged 10″ and the Eternal Return 12″ gradually refined and redefined their suffocating underground doom with impenetrable esoteric themes, and gained them a fearsome reputation as one of the world’s foremost purveyors of what is unequivocally heavy. After 13 years, where does such a band go from there? How can they push the envelope any further than it has already been pushed? Enter 2013’s Horrible Night

“We wanted to write something that would stand up over time…no disrespect to our earlier recordings – we feel the essence and atmosphere of those is still very much with us, but they were of a time and place that we’re no longer part of…” – MOSS

Moss’s Horrible Night track listing:
1. Horrible Nights
2. The Bleeding Years
3. Dark Lady
4. Dreams from the Depths
5. The Coral of Chaos
6. I Saw Them That Night

About Moss’s Horrible Night:
Recorded during the summer and autumn of 2012 at Hampshire’s Earth Terminal and London’s Earthworks studios, Horrible Night is the sound of MOSS emerging from its cocoon a much more savage, intelligent and all the more terrifying beast. While no longer obsessed with extremity for its own sake – with weirdly infectious riffs, eccentric vocal melodies and no song over 12 minutes – MOSS remain heavier-than-thou, broadening their horror beyond any imposed ‘scene’ expectations. This mastery of the craft is evident from the opening moments of first track “Horrible Nights” – written back in 2010 it sets the course for the album, taking the twisting death-crawl of MOSS mini-epics such as “Tombs of the Blind Drugged” and administering a lethal dose of addictive melody, cooked up by the colossal riffs of Dominic Finbow and the Ozzy-via-seance vocalizations of Olly Pearson. Cuts such as “The Coral of Chaos” and “Dark Lady” expand further upon this potent formula, dragging the Black Sabbath blueprint to its most nightmarish conclusion and ushering MOSS further into their newest dark age.

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