MOUTH OF THE ARCHITECT (Time & Withering) CD
Hailing from Dayton, Ohio MOUTH OF THE ARCHITECT are taking the aural assault of Neurosis or Isis as a template in combination with post-rock aesthetics and have carved out their musical visions within four rollercoaster cuts. Due to the fact, that three of the four songs are about ten minutes, "Time & Withering" can be seen as their debut full-length, and has been released by Translation Loss Records. Well, the music is varying between sensual quieter moments and crushing down-tuned heaviness, and especially "The Worm" and "A Vivid Chaos" are my personal faves here, where the band effortlessly created an atmosphere of tension and melancholy. So far, so good but I have my problems with the vocals. For my taste, this kind of roaring is not very helpful in creating an intense atmosphere, although this is the band`s intention, I guess. This group is really exciting when playing instrumental, and for my taste one don't need to roar or to bark just to express darker emotions or deep desperation. That's one of the reasons, why I never really liked a band like Isis - the music is very nice, but the vocals are terrible.
Only the aformentioned Neurosis have done this perfectly, but after all their successful years of roaring, they found different ways to express their inner worlds. Anyway, this shouldn't be the theme of this review! Apart of my personal problems with the vocal-style, this group had recorded a very promising debut, which is another proof, how diverse heavy music can sound in current times. MOUTH OF THE ARCHITECT can extend their sound in many different directions, what makes them interesting and I'm eager to see whether they make it or not. At least, I like to mention the tasteful cover-artwork, that contains all lyrics and some inspiring images. Nice package, that underlines the quality of the music (if there weren't that vocals...)!
(KK)