Final Gasp – Mourning Moon

Mourning Moon, the debut album by Boston-based band Final Gasp sees the band defining their sound by navigating through different genres. And while that in itself might not be unique, there is something to the band’s approach to blending goth, industrial, punk, alternative and metal which results in something quite unique.

The band continues where they left off on those first two EP’s, which makes sense, taking into the consideration that it’s those releases that landed them a deal with mighty Relapse Records.

The overall dark feel runs through each of the 12 tracks, but diversity between and within them is what gives this album the edge and ultimately its identity. “Homebound” is a catchy 80’s UK-goth rocker, like we’ve lately grown custom to from Unto Others. The title-track is an infectious industrial rocker which has Killing Joke written all over it. Elsewhere, “Blood and Sulfur” goes full-on punk anthem in vain of The Misfits and “Temptation” simply shrieks Danzig.

Sonically, Mourning Moon navigates elegantly between noisy rehearsal space rawness and warm atmospheric aesthetics, which works rather well with their musical approach. Similar can be said about the vocals and most aspects of this album. The band has a really good feel for balancing out all these elements, which makes the Mourning Moon, a very unwavering piece of work.

At the very core of it all is very compact and concentrated songwriting, with solid overall quality and with only one of the songs passing a 4-minute mark, this makes for an album which has been trimmed of any unnecessary fat.

The influences may be many and apparent, but overall, Final Gasp have managed to create something which stands as their own and even quite unique. On Mourning Moon, beauty walks hand in hand with rawness and direct punches roll with atmospheric epic embraces.

www.finalgasp.bandcamp.com/album/mourning-moon