The temptation to start this review with some kind of witty comment about Mooses (Moose? Moosii?) residing in houses or other related puns is somewhat overwhelming. I shall try my best to squash such ridiculousness for the moment though and instead get straight down to business.
First of all; a small disclaimer. Feed The Moose are very much the apotheosis of an up and coming band; full of energy and talent, maybe a little green around the edges – from lack experience I mean, that’s not to say they’re going mouldy or anything like that – and with not a massive amount of music out there on the interwebs to talk about... yet.
Luckily, what does exist is extremely worth your time.
A three piece hailing from the magical land beyond Swindon, which is also known as Gloucestershire, Feed The Moose describe their sound as Alternative, which is pretty much on the nail. It’s definitely different, I’ll give them that!
Here’s the challenge for me then. See, normally, I have the opportunity to talk about how an artist is varied and versatile, or I can get a good sense of their style or genre (or lack of – which isn’t a bad thing!) within 4 or 5 tracks. With Feed The Moose, because of the small number of tracks available to us at this moment, any general statements about the band’s style I say now could be completely different 6 months down the road. To clarify, this isn’t a bad thing either. Some might argue that this is the best bit of being in a band, when you’re still experimenting with things and finding your voice as a group, finding that style that suites you.
‘Past Decisions’ tells me two things about Feed The Moose straight away. There is a large amount of talent at play, and that they seem to be somewhere in the punk/heavy rock spectrum, maybe just leaning on the edge of metal, with a bit of Dreamtheater style prog thrown in for good measure. Either way, it’s a snappy track that pulls no punches, and while focussed on instrumental skills over vocal work, shows that the three band members work really well off each other, and have a skill for writing music that is both easy to get into and satisfyingly complex.
Before listening, I knew that there was a 50-50 chance that ‘Bedsores’, the second track I had access to, would either confirm that the band was somewhere in that general area in terms of style, or would be something completely different and I’d have to redraw my view of them. Turns out it was the latter. ‘Bedsores’ is a more traditional punk rock number, still using a little prog complexity, but toning down a little bit of that metal edge. To be honest though, this is the most eclectic song I’ve heard in a while, with Feed The Moose taking clear influence from a number of styles, including some Ska in there as well as the aforementioned Metal, Prog, Punk, Rock, Alternative, Indie...
There’s some lovely guitar skills on display here, and if anything I’d say that this is the slightly stronger of the two tracks in terms of song construction, and has a little more emphasis on the vocals, but is still mainly about showing off the instrumental skills the guys have. Ok, so this isn’t a band that is easy to sing along to, but then again, with such talent on display on the respective instruments, I don’t think that’s really a problem. Just sit back and listen to them do what they do best; shred guitar, throw down some complex rhythm on drums, and groove about on bass. Done and done.
Overall, if you’re looking for something a bit different with an eclectic and complex sound that is still somehow straightforward to get into (work that one out!), I’d recommend giving these guys a go. The best bit is that they’re still developing, and I’m really interested to see where they go next.
Review by Paul Barnes
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