Halfway to Nowhere

I’d never heard of Möse before, and didn’t know what to expect except for doom (‘cause of the label behind it), and I’ve never heard Thee Plague of Gentlemen nor Neuthrone either, but they have some members in common. Honestly I can’t say I really know of any Belgian doom bands whatsoever, well except for these three now. But when coming from the great lands of Solitude Productions how can this go wrong?

It sure-as-hell doesn’t. From the very first moment, the very first time I pressed play I was in awe. The extremely powerful stoner riffing of the opening track "People eat dogs in China" just shreds, and when the commanding voice goes ‘it makes no sense to me’ he sends shivers down my spine. Bloody hell, this is some wicked, psychedelic shit!

There are a lot of those psychedelic vibes á la Electric Wizard going on, while a strong old school vibe reminding me of early Black Sabbath haunts the atmosphere. I can’t help but to think of both Jack Frost and The Bottle Doom Lazy Band, yet "Halfway to nowhere" carries with it a sort of hardcore-ish feel, and even a progressive touch at times. There’s a lot of variation and nuances thrown in, and still it comes out as a very coherent sound.

Tons of awesome riffs are on display, and it’s difficult to resist the urge to do some air-guitaring during the instrumental "Gläss" (as well as throughout pretty much any track). As I mentioned the opening track really kicks my ass with the heavy-as-shit riffing and strong vocals, but the same goes for "The levee will break" and every other track as well. The sound is quite heavy and somewhat clean; but not too clean, just enough to become utterly powerful sound-wise. But the harsh, raspy semi-clean vocals bring it down to a dirty level, crawling in filth.

Möse (which apparently means ‘sludge’) have managed to mix psychedelic stoner with classic doom with hardcore-ish sludge, and they’ve done it extremely well. The drum patterns keep changing, adding tons of variation, and the riffing excels in groove. There are tons of moments you’ll want to shout along, however there aren’t any lyrics included (just a poster-like booklet), so it requires some listening attention to follow along. Comes strongly recommended.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net