Artist: Mass Movement Of The Moth
Album: Finale
Label: Alone Records
Tracks: 5
Length: 16:32
Review By: Jacob Gehman

There are sometimes back stories to the various album when I get them to review. Sometimes they make them easier to review because it gives the album a good context to work from, or, at the least, an interesting story as paragraph fodder. On the other hand, and thankfully a lot rarer, are the kind of back stories which make a review much, much harder to deal with. For example, when I get sent a tribute album for an artist I never listened to in the first place. You may have figured out by this point that there is, in fact, a back story that applies to “Finale.” Unfortunately for me, it is the sort that makes me feel inadequate to write this review.

“Finale” is a new recording by Mass Movement Of The Moth of one of their older EPs titled “Finally.” According to their website this was due to them having gone a different place musically as a band. Understandably, my dilemma is that I haven’t heard “Finally” to do a proper comparison. This is not as tragic as it sounds since if you are a current fan of the band, you’ll probably get this regardless of my opinion, and if you are not all you care about is what this EP sounds like.

The music borrows from metalcore and punk without actually seeming to fit into either genre. The riffs are crisp without being exceptionally fast. They’re not here to blow you away. It’s a nice even pace that will pick up or let off without losing sight of the underlying pulse. In it’s own way there is something quite groovable about it. There are subtle electronic elements that work quite nicely with the overall effect.

Vocally, the album favors a dry, raspy yell. However, track one goes for a full blown snarl that brings to mind something very black metal. This resurfaces briefly at other points on “Finale,” though no other track seems to lean on it as heavily as the first. Both vocal stylings work well with the music and it’s not a distraction whichever direction the vocals take on any given track.

The overall combined effect ranges from equally similar-yet-different artists like Milemarker to Norma Jean to Ninety Pound Wuss. There isn’t much about this that I can fault. While hard music can often get repetitive, Mass Movement Of The Moth have released a nice EP which is just long enough to show who they are as a band and, at the same time, whetting our appetite for a full length.