Into The Moat started as a one-man project in 2001 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Matthew Gossman, who is now the drummer, played all the instruments, made a demo and thereafter got some other people to play in the band, so he wouldn’t be so insanely busy on stage. So now, somewhat over three years later, their debut album ‘The Design’ is out on Metal-freaking-Blade. The music best describes itself as chaotic deathcore, or what people sometimes like to call technical death (thrash) metal. To put it into a visual: they take no prisoners, they just shoot them right away and then dance wickedly around their bodies.

Song one, ‘Century II’ starts off the CD perfectly. A short, single chord main riff, with completely idiotic guitar loops coming in from time to time. Fantastic, really, if I ever get to writing a screenplay for a horror-like movie, this will be the opening song. After the opener, it’s mass destruction and anti-structure; blisteringly battered drums, haunting growls, loads of riff changes, and just straight up stupid pacing. Very nice. From time to time the heavily distorted riffs are livened up with nice, clean guitar loops, to have the listener regain a little consciousness, after taking heavy beating with baseball bats to the spine, punches and uppercuts from all directions.

On the band pictures these guys look pretty nice, but you’d swear they eat wolves and coyotes for breakfast every morning if you hear them play. It’s nuts, it’s cool.
The music reminds me of Glass Casket, who had a really great album out at the end of 2004, only in the music of Into The Moat, there’s even less structure and logic. You have to listen to ‘The Design’ at least four or five times to truly appreciate the sheer slaughter put on display by Into The Moat. Great production, really one of the best I’ve heard in some time, comparable to and equally brilliant as the production on Lamb Of God’s ‘Ashes of the Wake’. Powerful, low growls and higher screams, well varied, inspired guitar work and nearly impeccable drums. After 33 minutes, the fun is over already, but that is actually a good thing, because you still haven’t lost interest, and your ears and nerve-system still function. Awesome work.