I was really looking forward to this, the debut full-length from these Pennsylvania bruisers formerly known as Mushmouth, as I thought their EP was an incredible dose of furious metalcore just how I like it. But despite the fact that these 10 songs have all the trademark elements that should make for a completely crushing display of fury, the recording on this thing is kind of annoying, so the end result's falling a little short for me. The vocals are hoarse shouts that sound pretty damn slick, but the drums are too flat and clicky/thumpy, the bass is slightly unbalanced, and there's an obnoxious midrange sheen over the guitars that leaves the mix sounding a little cluttered. They really need a clear, focused, well honed attack for this stuff - one that would allow the guitars and bass to lock together and just dominate the mix, but... aside from the vocals sounding pretty close to the mark, I have a hard time really getting past the flaws elsewhere. I've definitely heard worse, don't get me wrong, and despite the shortcomings in production values you can definitely tell that these dudes do some serious damage from a songwriting standpoint... it's just unfortunate that the listening experience is definitely marred on this outing. Since the tracks are totally in the vein of the 90's style of metalcore that I still love, if nothing else I have to hand it to these guys for being among the few acts out there keeping this style alive, as there's a major void for this particular niche of hardcore right now. Expect plenty of chugging power chords, jarring metal riffs, burly breakdowns, and energetic hints at traditional hardcore. "Ghost Army" definitely has a classic metallic hardcore intro as well as a total 90's breakdown with Slayer sounding riffs backed by a pulsing rhythm section (the playing's definitely too sloppy on those metal riffs, though); "Disappear" has just the right amount of dissonance and groove mixed with straight up metallic hardcore; "Watch You Die" is chock full off hammer-on/pull-off runs; and "In My Eyes" and "Faithless" lean more towards the basic hardcore sound with lots of power chords and a little more speed and simplicity (notably in the latter). The incredible "Angels vs. Demons" has a major All Out War thing going on, which suits me fucking fine! But what really makes it the big winner here is the killer vocal cameo from James motherfucking Ismean from Fury of Five/Boxcutter - where the hell's he been anyway!? That's some great shit right there. The layout keeps it simple with red, black, and white for plenty of violent imagery, band photos, and all of the lyrics. As you can probably imagine, the lyrics are totally in your face, covering the standard fare that this style of music should be dealing with: "My life has been a book of wasted time. Put the bullet in my head. There is no hope for me. All that's left is to die. No hope. No reason to live." I'm gonna have to go ahead and give this one the benefit of the doubt in a lot of ways because I just love this style of true metalcore and these cats are nailing it on the songwriting front, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that the production's gonna beef up in the future, as this shit could be absolutely amazing. Tracks like "Angels vs. Demons" are definitely essential, with the bitterness of "Condemned Forever" a sorely missed characteristic in most of the metalcore that's out there these days, so I'd be seriously flipping out over this material if the recording had more punch. Look out for these guys down the road, as they're still going strong as hell.
[Thorp]
Running time - 29:27, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Disappear, Angels vs. Demons, Condemned Forever]
Thorp Records - http://www.thorprecords.com
