Mose - Halfway to Nowhere

Rating: 6.7

Country: Belgium

Genre: Sludge Metal

Release Date: 2009

Track list:
1. People Eat Dogs in China
2. The Levee Will Break
3. I Sleep with Demons
4. Hijack Hotel
5. Machines
6. Glass (Instrumental)
7. Halfway to Nowhere

Total playing time 51:54

Band Website: Mose

Mose - Halfway to Nowhere

Karel Busschop - bass, vocals, effects
Geoffrey Geraert - guitars
David Stubbe - drums

Sludge metal has long been my musical "comfort food." When I'm feeling a little down or antisocial, out comes the Eyehategod, Cavity and Grief. Since I've nearly worn out copies of Dopesick and Supercollider I'm always looking for new albums to add to my rainy day mood pile.

At first taste Mose's Halfway to Nowhere seems pretty good; two songs in and I'm grooving on the solid New Orleans-style sludge metal. The meaty combination of Rwake and Deadbird makes for immediately enjoyable listening, sorta like eating cotton candy or licorice. Because this is a tasty concoction; the riffs have the southern flair of Down and Crowbar, the percussion is heavy like Grief and Iron Monkey and the songs do groove more than they trudge (a nice swinging groove is an absolute necessity in good sludge metal to prevent boredom).

But like cotton candy and licorice Halfway to Nowhere isn't very filling. Each songs moves at about the same tempo, just slightly slower than midpaced. For the most part Mose never hit Cavity-punk speed and every time they get close, three minutes into "The Levee Will Break," the opening few minutes of "Machines," they break off the groove and slow it back down. While there are plenty of good riffs, the lack of tempo variation makes every song sound about the same-good, but damned unexciting. After a few listens on repeat, I wouldn't be able to tell whether I'm listening to track one of track five. And the vocals don't help this in any way. Karel Busschop sounds like the singer for the new, indie rock version of Rebreather. There is no real power in the vocals and instead of sounding pissed off or angry he just sounds whiny, and that's tough to take in sludge metal.

That isn't to say Halfway to Nowhere is a bad album, 'cause it really isn't. It's just missing some of the raw power that I associate with great sludge. I still like my aural despair to sound more despairing. Give me the psychopathic rantings of Mike Williams and I feel pretty good about myself, where as with Mose, I'm just waiting for them to bust loose and revel in the squalor that is classic sludge metal, something they never do.

A well-produced album of decent sludge that never quite hits my sweet spot, Halfway to Nowhere is a pretty good debut. But it won't make it in to my short stack of "comfort food" sludge albums. It's just too nice and too clean to satisfy my cravings when it comes to sludge. If you like Rwake, Kylesa and Deadbird, this might just make your day.

January 1, 2010