War From A Harlot's Mouth, Transmetropolitan
War From A Harlot’s Mouth mix an astounding array of styles into an amalgam of chaotic mathematical structure — blending the likes of grindcore and mathcore with jazz seamlessly. It sounds like a horribly odd combination, but the band pulls it off fairly well.
Their debut full length album Transmetropolitan for Lifeforce Records is an exercise in concentration as there is more than enough to pay attention to from track to track. At times on the disc the band changes things up between reckless, grinding thrash riffs with ambient bits of techno or jazz. Surprisingly they never really break the flow or lose momentum in this fashion. The vocals are delivered well, mixing deep guttural death growls with hardcore gang shouts and tortured higher end screams. Along with main vocalist Steffan, other members of the band contribute to the layered delivery on several tracks.
How to Disconnect From Your Social Surrounding in Half an Hour
Looking at the song titles, it’s easy to get confused by such a technical sounding band. Are they trying to be artsy or are they having a good bit of fun? Either way the opening track is two minutes of sheer aggression. The vocals range from low end gutturals to higher end screams — all over a musical base that shifts from hardcore breakdowns, grinding blasts and jazzy interludes.
Heeeey… Let’s Start a Band
A little bit of The Red Chord is present in the beginning of the second track. All comparisons end there as huge moshing riffs hit with the force of a sledgehammer. The rest of the track is like sticking your head into a running, open industrial sized blender. Heeeey… Let’s Start a Band” is all over the place, yes still listenable.
The District Attorneys Are Selling Your Blood
After the hardcore gang shouts from the second track have subsided the band hit you hard with a good bit of grind and pummeling riffs the size of Mt Fuji. If you can say one thing about this band is that their sound is one of extremes — they just don’t do any middle of the ground stuff. For example, the mosh filled riffs are huge on this song. There’s no half-assing it here.
Trife Life
After three brain jarring tracks WFAHM, let you catch your breathe with a bit of ambient techno beats. It’s a nice respite from the aural assault and really doesn’t take too much away from the momentum of the previous tracks.
Fighting Wars With Keyboards
Immediately after you’ve rested, this sub-two minute blast of moshing, stop/go riffing and grind will surely wake you from your brief slumber.
Mulder
A slowly paced bit of riffing and tortured screams set the mood for “Mulder.” There’s a lot of stuff going on in this 7 minute epic. Bluesy rock riffs flirt with hardcore breakdowns.
Thousand Complaint, One Answer
Thick riffs and a dual vocal attack await you on “Thousand Complaint, One Answer.”
If You Want to Blame Us for Something Wrong, Please Abuse This Song
Here’s some more plodding grind and hardcore breakdowns with Steffan’s varied vocal attack. This track has a unique integration of a sound clip. The band has taken the cadence of a rapidly discharge of a machine gun and matched their blastbeats with it, switching between the two. It sounds cheesy as hell, but is still quite effective.
Rinding Dead Horses is a Fucking Curse
This song sounds like similar material that I’ve heard before. I’m not sure if it’s from Norma Jean’s Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child or not, but it sounds familiar. The shouted/screamed gang vocals are a nice touch to help separate it from like material.
Transmetropolitan
The title track is three and a half minutes of hardcore influenced metal that starts softly with growing reverb. This is actually one of the better tracks on the album due partly to its departure from the math/mosh formula the band has had for a majority of the album.
And in the Right to Make Mistakes, We May Lose and Start Again
The final track on this math/grind/jazz adventure spans the final 10 minutes of the disc, but the actually time spent on the last song is just over two and a half minutes. It’s all instrumental for that brief time, then there is nothing until 3 seconds worth of guitar shredding.
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War From A Harlot’s Mouth have made a case for their brand of deathcore by blending elements of mathcore and jazz into a genre that has many sound-a-likes. While a couple of the tracks on this album, could be found on just about any of their peers’ releases, a majority of it is standout material. So if you like your stuff technical, chaotic and mixed with a bit of jazz then Transmetropolitan is exactly what you need.
Favorite Tracks:
Heeeey… Let’s Start a Ban
Fighting Wars With Keyboards
Transmetropolitan
Additional Notes:
N/A