Colorado five-piece Mouth For War have left it late in the year to submit their effort for extreme metal album of the year, but as metalcore records go it’s hard to ignore as one of the best of 2023. Into their bubbling cauldron of influences you can almost feel the Knocked Loose adoration swimming around with the odd eye of newt, as well as some clear love and respect for bands like Counterparts, Terror, Malevolence and other acts peddling in outright aggression. They’ve already released one excellent LP in the form of 2019’s Life Cast in Glass, and after signing to MNRK Heavy they’re coming out swinging with their label debut Bleed Yourself.
Jumping straight in at the deep end, album opener ‘Roses In Place Of Your Ashes’ is custom built to create chaos in the mosh pit, with chunky riffage throughout and an easy set of lyrics to scream at the nearest person. Seemingly only interested in causing as much chaos as possible, Mouth For War have started their sophomore LP off with a bang. Coming up for the one-two punch is ‘The Plight Of Those You Left Behind’ which carries on the wild energy of the previous track, as well as the proper metalcore song-naming technique of a long, sad title that sounds like a theoretical Converge album. This is a slightly longer song than the first, but at just over three minutes it most definitely doesn’t overstay its welcome, still pummelling at the listeners ears then moving on to allow the next song to take its turn.
“Album opener ‘Roses In Place Of Your Ashes’ is custom built to create chaos in the mosh pit”
The whole album screams of a band who’ve found their groove, in the best way possible. They haven’t got complacent, they aren’t recycling, but what they are doing is writing great music that they are good at writing, and each of them sound confident in what they do. Trae Roberts, vocalist of Mouth For War, is in particularly fine form with his gruff gutturals penetrating the mix brilliantly to bark harsh vocals directly into your brain.
A stand out moment comes at track 10 ‘Talking To God’, with its heinous guitar tone and layered vocals. The opening of the song hits with all the force of a freight train at full speed, and leaves the back end to whip around and sucker punch you when you think you’re safe, before the intro to ‘Shattered Self’ comes in to clean up after it. Another highlight of the album, the breakdown halfway through is supremely written to target the two steppers and karate kickers of the world, and will invoke hell at many a live show in the future.
The term sophomore slump has been long forgotten here, frankly the band probably haven’t ever heard the words. An excellent release by a band who have a very promising future in a burgeoning scene that they are surely going to become a key component of.