Mark Moss
Perspectives Independent

by Derric Miller
Staff Writer

Comments: Mark Moss. If you are lucky, you remember his more metal days when he fronted the ridiculously talented Vicious Circle. If not, maybe you caught his melancholy solo acoustic release in 2006 titled One Last Day of Denial. Now, the Iowa-based rocker is back with a new solo CD called Perspectives, that plays to his harder edge on some tracks while staying in the acoustic realm.

The CD begins with a burning acoustic song called "Not Anymore," and the theme is something 99.9 percent of Americans can relate to: hating your job. The cool thing here is that Moss, always an adept singer, rips into a pretty impressive lead at the guitar solo. It seems that branching out from his band days has made him a more complete artist, and then some.

If you like Alice in Chains, well, you'll dig "Back 2 U." This is a dirty, bass-heavy anthem about vengeance. The guitar sounds fuzzed-out, and Moss is pissed as he sneers, "You'll only make me suffer to bring you down." There is a highly melodic interlude in the midst of the track that takes you to another place, right before the guitar solo.

Things turn morose on "Breathe," a song about saying goodbye to a loved one due to Alzheimer's or dementia. The lyrics are poignant, with lines like, "And even if you don't recall my name, I recognize the love in your eyes."

Moss exhumes a Vicious Circle song on Perspectives and reloads it acoustically with "Always Something." This is a good-time song, especially following the aforementioned blackened themes. Moss owns an impressive range, and he shows it off here. "When you're really, really happy, shore ain't from the J-O-B." That clinches it - Moss hates working. He also remakes another Vicious Circle song later on the CD, "Friends," and if you remember the original, this one blows it away.

Staring back into the abyss, Moss wrote the haunting "Betrayal." It's really a slow churning composition, almost uncomfortable in the way he draws out the lines. On the section of the song where he sings, "I'll need forgiveness one last time," he launches the final note as a scream, layering the vocals with a bunch of harmony yells. It's pretty damn cool. After the guitar solo, Moss is up at the higher edge of his range again, and uses seven-part harmonies. Crazy …

At the end of Perspectives, Moss lightens the load a bit, with an ode to his pup, "The Mighty Tuscan." With lines like, "I'd lick someone if they'd just scratch me," and "I'll lick everything I can reach," he'd better be writing about a dog. Tuscan is even recorded howling along at the end of the song, and it's pretty damn funny.

Perspectives is another strong release from Moss. While this isn't as heavy as his earlier work, it is certainly more introspective and headier. He makes music you can groove to if that's all you want, but from a lyrical content, he always gives you something to think about. Give this CD a spin today.

www.markmoss.net

Track listing:
1 Not Anymore
2 Back 2 U
3 Breathe
4 Baskets for Mom
5 Questions
6 Scream in Color
7 Tormental
8 Always Somethin'
9 Betrayal
10 Erin
11 Friends
12 The Mighty Tuscan

HRH rating: 7.8/10