Despite being together as a band for nearly thirteen years, the UK-based MOSS are only now on the cusp of releasing their third full length. That’s not to say that this trio have been resting on their laurels, heck no, most years since their inception have seen a split, or a demo or an EP released into the wild – although it has been pretty quiet on the MOSS front for a few years now.
Luckily, that time was spent writing and recording Horrible Night, an album that has been a long time coming – both for fans and for MOSS themselves. You get the sense that this is what the band has been striving for and damn, do they hit the mark. Olly Pearson’s vocals are cut from the Ozzy Osbourne cloth this time around, which is certainly not a bad thing and the clean (albeit hazy) lilt that’s employed here adds a new depth to the occult vibrations that thrum so steadily and heatedly throughout the record.
“Horrible Nights” begins the record with downbeat guitar (Dominic Finbow) inflections that rasp and breathe with a deliciously “traditional” sound. Laden with veiled smoke, MOSS conjure images of ritual and sacrifice with naught but one guitar and a set of drums (Chris Chantler) and along with Pearson’s vocal lines they create weight and tangible riffs that spill off your speakers with processional magnificence.
The occasional fuzzy scream splits the otherwise rhythmic style of “Horrible Nights” which in turn gives the track a little more flavour to go along with the dank atmosphere that creeps in and out of the record as a whole. MOSS delve sweetly into the darkness on “The Bleeding Years” and the slow, sludged out doom that comprises the song threatens to overwhelm and drown you under it’s own incredible mass, which is so heavy that Pearson begins coughing and spluttering towards the end. An intentional device? Or a strain that manifested itself before vocal recording was complete? Either way, it fits quite perfectly.
“Dreams from the Depths” turns Horrible Night onto a slightly different path with light strokes of guitar that are undercut by rumbling channels of noise that work into the cracks and build into a somewhat unsettling and disturbing section of sound. Moments such as these grant MOSS the ability to act within their genre boundaries whilst still experimenting with their own sound slightly, and it’s great to see “trad” doom deviate from the norm every now and again.
“I Saw Them That Night” closes Horrible Night on a distinctly tripped out tone. The nuances of the guitar tread an undercurrent of psychedelia with little flicks and nods towards the opium soaked 70s ritualism that’s wrought throughout the record by these gentlemen. Undulating and recurrent discordance permeates the final moments, the sounds gaining strength and becoming ever more graciously and gratuitously loud before cutting off suddenly into complete silence ending this ceremony with an abrupt and unusual potency.
The wait for Horrible Night may have been long and arduous….but it was oh, so worth it.
Due via Rise Above Records on March 25th in Europe and Metal Blade Records on April 2nd for the US/Canada.
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