When No Echo last caught up with MouthBreather, it was to heap praise on last year's Pig, an absolutely blinding slice of experimental hardcore even if it was, to quote the band themselves, "unabridged" and born of chaotic circumstance. Among other things, they were in the studio busy playing Frankenstein to the monster that became Dollmeat.
Impossibly, the new release finds everything done at a higher standard: the vocals more blood curdling, the breakdowns more developed and severe, and the nightmarish equations imposed on their instruments more intricate. There's an almost inhuman, machine-like precision to the entire album that manages to remain grounded and organic due to the chaotic nature at its core. There are moments the guitars unravel or unexpectedly shift into grotesquely perfect digital squeals and skronk. It conjures revolting electronics anchored by the rabid ramblings of a madman.
Lest I run out of superlatives, "Probortion" is perhaps the high watermark on an album defined by them. It shifts from absolute lightning fast grind played with a metallic jazz acumen before devolving into a lumbering scuzz of a bass riff. Though I'm loathe to call them "panic chords," the use of the classic minor 2nd is perfect: barbed, evil, and shredding.
Fans of Vein, Sanction, Silenus, Tourniquet, Typecaste, Botch, Calculating-era DEP, and the like have just found their favorite album. If you're in the Mid-Atlantic, look out for MouthBreather, who're poised to decimate both Baltimore on July 9 for Sidebrawl and Brooklyn the following day for Mathcore IndexFest.
Dollmeat is available on MouthBreather's Bandcamp page.
Tagged: mouthbreather
