MOSS — Sub Templum (review)

MOSS — Sub Templum album cover Album · 2008 · Drone Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2/5 ·
aglasshouse
Now for something completely not different. Moss is a band hailing from the weirder side of doom metal- the occultist side. This area of doom has created some pretty weird and admittedly disturbing material, and UK's Moss is no exception.

If you've heard slow doom metal, you've never heard it like this. Most of the band's second album Sub Tempulum's monolithic 73 minute LP is devoted to the low rippling guitar screeches of Dominic Finbow with the slow cymbal crash on occasion. What I presume to be "vocals" of Olly Pearson's are distant, hoarse screams with indiscernible lyrics (not a big surprise). Honestly even with your basic "doom metal tools" laid perfectly out there for them Moss just seems to make a below-average album. Something I noticed is that Sub Templum is rather similar to Sleep's Dopesmoker, except just more repetitive, lower quality, and less fun. I myself as a fan of doom metal should know better than to expect much more from an obscure occult metal band, especially one from the doom genre, but I was nonetheless disappointing. This was even after I saw the decent album art. I'll pass on this one.
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aglasshouse wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Esoteric I've enjoyed thoroughly in the past, particularly Pernicious Enigma, but as far as much of the rest of the genre is considered, I just find it too easy to replicate by those with not much...creative endeavor. Esoteric's soundscape designs are much more complex than much of what comes out of the funeral doom scene, and that's kind of what makes them higher on the roster for me. As for the majority of other bands that hail from FD, they just don't interest me like I feel they should.
siLLy puPPy wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I have this one. The style is called funeral doom metal and should probably be there. If you're familiar with bands like Esoteric, you should try them out. I kinda like this one. Not bad for what it is. It's definately an acquired taste though :)

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