Mose Giganticus – Gift Horse
Upon receiving Mose Giganticus’ new album Gift Horse, I was immediately struck by how much the album art -two weird symmetrical horses- reminded me of the cover of Mastodon’s Remission. And look at that, it’s also a Relapse release. Hmmm…
The album kicks off with “Last Resort”, boasting a synthy intro made me think right away of Genghis Tron, a band that combines electronica with metal better than anyone I’ve heard. After about thirty seconds, the riffing starts and… lo and behold, there’s Mastodon again.
Starting off the review the way I just did may give the impression that I’m ragging on Mose Giganticus for being Mastodon clones. In all honesty, that’s how I thought this was going to go. I mean, the big guitar-driven rock metal with proggy twists, overlaid with a shouted raspy vocal? That’s Mastodon right there, and it sums up about half of Mose Giganticus’ sound too. Thing is, the other half is completely packed with awesome influences from far-flung places, making this album a pleasant surprise.
There is a constant and quite appropriate use of keyboards and synth in these songs. The Uriah Heep influence is unmistakable; right down to the tones and the 70s prog twists. Another band with a huge Uriah Heep vibe, Quebec cult-progsters Grimskunk, is also called up throughout Gift Horse. It’s hard to say whether or not the guys in Mose Giganticus have ever even heard of Grimskunk, but both bands share the common vein of combining heavy guitar, majestic keyboards, and proggy ideas, and somehow presenting the whole package in an upbeat and fun way. And of course, no metalhead could miss the vocoder vocal lines, immediately bringing Cynic to mind. In most cases the vocoder is used in addition to the regular vocals, which adds a cool extra texture to the melody.
Although this album is off-kilter and different, it doesn’t beat you over the head with its quirks. All the weird little elements are morphed into excellent hooks and songwriting devices. The whole thing is also short and sweet, clocking in at just less than thirty minutes. In that brief span of time, Mose Giganticus manages to take create a pensive, epic and celebratory sound that has me looping the album again and again.
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9 Comments
July 7th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Sounds promising. BTW, I love the Genghis Tron reference. GT is the most underexposed band ever.
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Eric Burnet replied:
July 8th, 2010 at 8:11 am
I know! Every time I scroll through my iTunes and land on Genghis Tron, I'm always like "oh yeah, they exist!"
I guess they just don't get much press…
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July 7th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
Without a doubt checking into these guys, this stuff is awesome.
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July 8th, 2010 at 12:02 am
Holy crap, is that the same dude all three times in that pic??
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Eric Burnet replied:
July 8th, 2010 at 8:06 am
Yeah it is. I learned doing some research that this is essentially a one-man project. He gets touring musicians when they hit the road. I didn't mention in the review because it would have just been too long.
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Jen replied:
July 16th, 2010 at 11:41 pm
I was partially joking. I didn't really think it was the same guy. I just thought it was one heck of a coincidence that they all looked VERY similar to one another. That is CRAZY. Shame on him for messing with my mind like that. haha
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July 8th, 2010 at 1:07 am
Eric gets +10 for finding a Uriah Heep connection.
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Eric Burnet replied:
July 8th, 2010 at 8:09 am
Ha thanks. I got into Uriah Heep because of that other band referenced in there, Grimskunk. On their self-titled album from 1994 (I think) they did a cover of Look At Yourself and it fit in perfectly with their stuff. When I realized it was a cover I was very interested and checked out Uriah Heep, suddenly realizing I had known them for years growing up as my dad would play them at home all the time.
Anyway I highly recommend Grimskunk's self-titled and Meltdown albums if you like trippy, open-minded stuff.
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Keith Anderson replied:
July 8th, 2010 at 9:43 am
A lot more metal comes from 70s rock than musicians will admit. If it wasn't for Jethro Tull, there would be no Tool.
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