Into the Moat - Means by with the End is Justied EP Ft. Lauderdale, Florida�s Into the Moat was Formed by drummer Matthew Gossman in May 2001. He recorded all the instruments for several demo tracks and showed them to friends to complete the band. Into the Moat was eventually pieced together, composed of musicians ranging from ages 16 to 19, and they started playing many shows. Their style was refined in January of 2002 as then bassist, Kit Wray, moved onto guitar and assumed the main song writing responsibilities. They have slowly been gaining local recognition playing shows with bands such as Daughters, Curl Up And Die, Shai Hulud, Until the End, Hopesfall, Evergreen Terrace and many others. Into the Moat has just released an EP on Lovelost Records entitled �Means By Which the End Is Justified. The band itself is easily considered a cross-breed of bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan, Glassjaw and Converge, with DEP being the most recognisable one. Aggresive Vocals, extreme drumming, and unusual guitarplaying, all in a relentless tempo with only a few moments to slow down. This is complicated, chaotic music, and if you do not like those three bands, you will not like this band. The age of the bandmembers does not show, everything is very wel excecuted, with drummer Matt Gossman standing out. The amounts of crazy rhytms, fills and blastbeats are right up there with bands like Dillinger, and some Dying Fetus influences are noticeable as well. The disc starts with Battle-Spawned Lullabies, which immediatly sets the tone for the rest of the tracks. The track has some nice slow riffs which makes it stand out a bit compared to the rest of the songs, which tend to be a bit more up-tempo. The Golden Vile is a frantic song, with the guitars sounding like there is no tomorrow. Track 3, Demise, begins with a nice effected intro, and is one of the only songs with a "slower" bridge in the middle, which if I had my way, was a bit longer. The ending riff is great as well. Anguish starts as a real death-metal like track. Stylewise, it sounds a bit different to the rest of the cd, because it not as chaotic sounding as most of the other songs, and it has nice switches between guitarriffs and almost fusion-sounding parts. My favorite track would be "A Settling of Ways". The little guitar intro makes a perfect contrast with the rest of the song, which is one of the more "varied" sounding tracks on the disc. It has some awesome riffs and tempo changes, and a nice acoustic sounding bridge with some awesome drumming over it. Century I is another track that really defines the sound for Into the Moat for me. The little guitar melodies are catchy, but it remains in-your-face-heavy. And again, a great riff to close the cd. Also props to their vocalist, the guy must have quite a throat to play a live set of this kind of music. This cd proves that Into the Moat is one of the top bands in its genre. The only downside I can spot is that for people who dont like this kind of music, it will sound alike very easily. Personally, a bit more dynamic changes would be welcome, but I'm not doubting that the band will play this stuff unrelentlessly live, which is a big feature to pull off. Bio taken from www.intothemoat.com Tracklist 1. Battle-Spawned Lullabies 2. The Golden Vile 3. Demise 4. Anguish 5. A Settling of Ways 6. Century I