Labels: Adagio830
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Um, not entirely sure what is going on with the cover of this EP? Anyway, Mouthbreather is guys from the Setup and Wow Owls I do believe, and it pretty much sounds like that. So have you heard those two bands? Maybe not. Ok, Mouthbreather belt through 5 songs on this ten of high energy hardcore. They blend a heavy hitting attack with a serious case of melody and hoarse yelled vocals. There is kind of a slight emo thing going on here, Rites of Spring perhaps, buried in amongst the swirling walls of noisy guitars. This is perhaps a bit too relentless at times, the two similar sounding shouters kind of blur together and each song’s lack of compromise causes this to blast by without pause. The intensity is exciting, and I appreciate that they have woven a strong melody into each of these songs, I particularly enjoy parts of “Brown Tooth Grin” where the guitar solos bring to mind Party of Helicopters. The band certainly sounds different to most of their peers, which is a real plus point in this day and age where hardcore generally ends up being a rehash of some other hardcore that you already heard.
It is rare these days that I am going to want to sit down and crash through several songs of hardcore punk, but Mouthbreather are a fine listen and should appeal to those looking for brawny, melodic crunch. Sounds like a breakfast cereal.