Moss
Sub Templum

We are faced with a small masterpiece of extreme music, probably conceived in another dimension where the sun never rises and darkness reigns supreme.

The Moss are a Welsh band formed around the year 2000 that over time has managed to carve out a significant space in the doom underground, culminating in this work, from 2008, which has made them one of the most interesting and shocking realities of recent years. Rise Above is their label, but more importantly, Jus Oborne of Electric Wizard is the one who discovered them and guided them to this second full-length, an album that also earned them participation in the upcoming "Roadburn Festival" of 2010 (alongside bands such as Goatsnake and Yob, to name a few).

The group is composed of Olly Pearson (vocals and effects), Chris Chantler (drums), and Dom Finbow (guitar), a trio devoted to occultism and horror (as noted on their Myspace), as well as to sonic extremism and the slow (and I repeat slow) transportation of the listener toward excruciating and terrible agony. It's hard not to notice the similarity of this album with the dark and gloomy atmospheres of "Black One" by Sunn O))) and the anguishing slowness of Kanhate, both noteworthy comparisons. Above all, it is important to highlight how the Moss can easily be part of the circle of bands that over the past fifteen years have revolutionized and revived a genre like doom, radicalizing it and sometimes transforming it into something new, also borne out of the most varied experiments and a continuously progressing evolution.

This work is composed of four tracks for a total duration of 74 minutes, a long journey characterized by drones, funereal sounds, monolithic riffs, and screams and cries of all kinds. The path embarked upon by listening to this album is tough and rugged, with no shortage of moments of pure discomfort and alienation where it is easy to question what is happening and what the meaning of it all is. It is just like venturing into a muddy, fog-filled "swamp," getting lost, and then finding the way back, disoriented and confused about what has transpired.

Personally, one of the best albums of the last few years.