With a roster full of up and coming acts, it’s no real surprise to find that Metal Blade Records are more inclined to spend their time (And money) on acts that are gaining the most attention within the metal scene.

But in amongst the label’s vast roster, every now and then an album will manage to sneak out with little or no fanfare, and one that will inevitably take most by surprise.

Signed to Metal Blade Records almost a year to the day (Apparently only having played less than a dozen shows), five piece Texan based act Losa (Who consist of vocalist Michael Hall, guitarists Chris Ramirez and Kory Koch bassist Joshua Urista and drummer David Hall) have emerged with one of the strangest releases in recent times with their debut The Perfect Moment.

Often mislabelled (Or brushed aside) as metalcore, Losa prove to be anything but as generic as that, and instead touch upon traditional thrash, progressive metal and moments of pure atmospherics.

After a minutes worth of pointless sound effects (Not to mention it’s rather uninspired title of ‘Prelude’), Losa let loose with the epic track ‘The Beginning’ (Why they chose to have a prelude and a beginning is lost on me). Starting things of with a fast paced thrash like riff, Losa soon twist things a little to give the impression that there’s a hint of black metal in their sound before locking into a solid, heavy mid paced groove. Hall isn’t afraid to belt out scream after scream, but it’s just past the half way mark that the band soon change their tune as they drift in mellow territory (Along with Hall’s vocals) previously mastered by the likes of Opeth.

Without so much as missing a beat, Losa soon move onto ‘Unsuspecting Mind’, once again shedding the subtle jazz elements at the beginning to churn over a harsh riff under even harsher sounding vocal effort. But the transition is far from complete, as things once again evolve into what appears to be a second half (‘The Witness’s Account’), which underlines the band technical ability of off timing and precision tempo changes without going over the heads of non musician types.

The caustic ‘One Day, All Eyes Went Dim’ is violent and harrowing at it’s very core as Hall literally creates the venomous atmosphere over a bludgeoning soundtrack, while the pairing of ‘From The Ashes Of Infancy’ and ‘Linear Prophecy’ (The definite picks of entire album) takes the technical thrash/black metal elements of the opener and stretch it to near breaking point.

Bringing forth a slight Isis feel (In regards to slow doom like atmospherics and an ever building flow) is the albums sole sombre track ‘Church Of Pitted Vipers’, which again seamlessly leads into the final number ‘...Madness (Sentiment Of A Dying Man)/Cessation’, which encompasses a variety of changes that overviews the various aspects that make up the schizophrenic (And undeterminable) sound that is Losa.

The way in which Losa manage to allow one track to flow from one into another gives the entire album a sense of listening to a singular piece of music (Although as individual the tracks work quite well too), while the vast array of influences damn near makes it impossible to single out one particular niche the band belong too, making it a confusing, yet rewarding listen.

The album does have it’s flaws of course, but when taking into account what Losa have to offer overall, The Perfect Moment is a rather apt title to say the least.

» losa.nu