Style: Death (harsh vocals)
Review by: Jonah
Country: Belgium
Release date: 19-10-2018
NOTE: This album was originally included in the October 2018 issue of The Progressive Subway
So I’m not great at classifying Death Metal, let’s get that out of the way. I can pick out Tech Death and Melodic Death very well, but once we get into Traditional, Brutal, etc I’m pretty useless. That being said, Moss Upon the Skull reminds me of a lot of Traditional Death I’ve heard. There’s bits and pieces of time signatures changes here that make it a bit proggy, but otherwise it’s pretty standard fare. Is that bad? Not really. Is it good? Not really.
The guitar-work ranges from competent to enjoyable here. Mostly it’s standard riffage broken up by the occasional distorted lead part, often a small noodly set of arpeggios or otherwise that quickly transitions back into the riffs. The drum work is a definite highlight, as the drummer does a fantastic job of just absolutely destroying a song with double-bass and some crazy rhythmic structure that really makes me wish the riffs followed suit and felt a tad less standard and chuggy. The bass ranges from inaudible to nice and thick, which leads to my major complaint here. The production is pretty varied in quality. Sometimes it’s really clean and nice, and you can hear everything, and other times the bass disappears and the lead guitar is inexplicably pushed further back. This doesn’t make the album unlistenable by any stretch of the imagination, but it does annoy me just a little. The vocal performance here is relatively standard, but incredibly competent, as the vocals stick in the low gutteral to lower-midrange growl range and do so to excellent effect. I would’ve liked more variety, but I can say that about most harsh vocals, so that’s not specifically a knock against this band.
This isn’t a long review because I really don’t have that much to say about this album. “In Vengeful Reverence” is an incredibly competent Death Metal album that I wish did a little bit more. But, if you’re a fan of non-melodic death metal and you’re looking for something to sate your appetite, give it a spin, you might like it.
Recommended tracks: Lair of the Hypocrite, In Vengeful Reverence
Recommended for fans of: Death, Immolation, Morbid Angel
Final verdict: 6/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: I, Voidhanger Records – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook
Moss Upon the Skull is:
– Jo Willems (vocals)
– Jef Van de Weghe (guitars)
– Jense Philips (drums)
– Mathijs Provoost (bass)
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