MouthBreather – Self-Tape
Release Date: 10th November 2023
Label: Good Fight Music
Bandcamp
Genre: Hardcore, Metalcore, Mathcore, Tech Metal, Post-Hardcore.
FFO: The Dillinger Escape Plan, Frontierer, Sleepsculptor, Car Bomb, Vein.fm.
Review By: Metal Miguel
Ten tracks of metal-hardcore goodness from the Massachusetts metal act, who have gifted albums from 2021, 2018 and 2017 as well, fusing that frenzy of technical metal, hardcore, post-hardcore and a spattering of other influences that I’m sure you will be shouting out as you read this, but taking your love and making it your own is a musicians dream, but influence is always important.
I guess I’m not a hardcore type of person, I mean I’ve had my moments in the past and the occasional album has popped up, and I’ve enjoyed a few tracks, but I wouldn’t firmly set myself up in that camp sat around the fire toasting some Converge or The Dillinger Escape plan style marshmallows, but I have dabbled, but this is really a precursor to my liking of this particular album, to soften the blow if you will. I mean it’s not a bad album, it’s technically excellent, musically it has a ton of riffage mixed in that DIY style production of raw pummelling of your ears, feedback and all, which is indicative of the time, the style, the genre that these guys are going for, which is belting!
I prefer my productions a little more polished, but that shouldn’t deter you if you’re a hardcore fan, and I’m sure it won’t, and this review will be dismissed as quickly as it was read and resigned to the pile of “that reviewer has gone soft” and I dare say anyone who is a total fan of the genre will love the raw and brutal delivering of this album – the bass work on iDoctor is a good example of that, then again that whole track is jumping but gives a good cross-section of how the album will go.
It’s a solid offering in its unrelenting and crushing delivery of genre-specific metal, and it has all the technical mastery one would expect from a metal band, evenly spaced out amongst the instruments, and they all bring their skill to the party. I’m just someone who likes to hear that in a cleaner environment, but if you are someone who likes their metal and productions filthy like when a backroom casting is merged with a snuff film, then this is the sound for you. Filled with filthy heavy riffs that will question your sanity after a while, or maybe you already do that and are impervious to such attempts on your psychological wellbeing, in which case I salute you.
(3 / 5)
