MOUTHS – A Lower Process | EP Review

MOUTHS have produced a genuinely unpredictable EP to open their account. Big things coming from these folks.

Hailing from the grim hills of the Steel City, MOUTHS combine post-hardcore, shoegaze and black metal elements into a unique broth that leaves nothing to the imagination in its genuinely unpredictable delivery and execution.  MOUTHS captured the tracks for A Lower Process without a click in a live setting as to produce a more organic, energetic and natural feel to the EP, and they haven’t half cracked it.

From the weird off key chord progression in ‘Pendulums’ to the slow burn atmospheric stylings of ‘Leibowitz’, Mouths debut offering is an exciting look into a band that should be getting traction over the coming year, not least for the frenetic energy filled live performances. The opener in particular is a capricious beast, the choral esque vocals produce a sound that whilst vaguely familiar is uniquely alien to the band.

Blast beats make a semi regular appearance to keep the energy up and the tracks moving, they add to the air of unpredictability, as do the inventively styled guitars. The crowning glory however is the dual vocal delivery of harsh blackened sludge metal lyrics and the haunting ethereal highs laid next to it to provide tantalizing juxtaposition. Shades of Alexisonfire round out the EP on ‘A Fest for Days’ although these are immediately usurped through a series of lo-fi blackened sludge metal riffs, as the track flip flops back and forth between soaring post-hardcore and gritty black metal.

MOUTHS are a band that bely their young age, it seems like they’ve already been at work long and hard to produce music that is so rooted in it’s own identity and so self-assured it’s almost as if they have been at it for years and years at this point. If this EP is anything to go by, expect a big year for MOUTHS, they’re already hard at work on EP2 and if it comes out anywhere near as cohesive and well produced as A Lower Process then it should be a thing of beauty.