Moderate Rock

While unabashedly inspired by the spacier alternative rock sounds of the 90s (there’s even a Ken Andrews guest appearance), Mossbreaker do such a close impression of the genre on their debut full-length that it could almost be a parody. Almost. Instead, from the eerie beginning to the epic end of ‘Between the Noise and You’, there’s enough honesty, care, and quality to mark out the Los Angeles outfit as a new, old-sounding band to watch. ‘Dissolve’ is a hazy, shogazey, but muscular ode to loss, ‘Shamer’ is a dreamy, latter-day-Deftones-esque number, and ‘Dramamine’, perhaps the best thing here, is melodic, memorable, and destined to play over the end credits of a movie that hasn’t been made yet. Some of the other songs here start to blend together after a while and Mossbreaker definitely stick to a formula (If the likes of Failure and Hum have never float your boat then there’s likely nothing for you here) but, for me, the formula is an eminently listenable one. Here’s hoping the band get to expand their sound in future.