### War From A Harlots Mouth: In shoals

#### 19/05/09 || Khlysty

Jesus fucking Christ: it’s already been ten years since The Dillinger Escape Plan released their watershed “Calculating Infinity” and one might think that this whole mathcore – spazzcore – death/grind/hardcore thing woulda blown its steam and been relegated to the status of an interesting, if not exactly super-important, style that permeated the metal scene for some time. Well, it seems that this thing hasn’t happened, if one judges by the fact that bands like Berlin’s War From A Harlots Mouth (heretoforth to be called WFAHM in this review) continue to make records that seem to be constructed by schizophrenics with attention deficit.

“In Shoals” is WFAHM’s second album for Lifeforce Records, coming after 2007’s “Transmetropolitan” (here is the GD review for it), which I haven’t heard, so I can’t tell you if there are any important differences between then and now, as far as the band’s sound is concerned. Now, if you’ve heard almost any of this style’s recordings, you’d know what to expect: the musicianship is incredibly proficient, the time-signature and key changes come in quanta of time and there’s a lot of experimentation with sound and texture and forays into other styles, like (free) jazz, trudging doom-oid music or ambient. In my opinion, this is textbook sound, which is good and bad for WFAHM.

On the good side of things, one must admit that, with music of such complexity and so demanding –technically and physically-, one cannot but admire the band’s chops: the guitarists, drummer and bassist, individually and as a unit, are exceptional musicians and their interplay within each song’s parameters is amazing, to say the least. The singer is not so amazing, using a screamo style, peppered here and there with a more guttural (almost death metal) inflection, that almost the prerequisite for the style, but he does his job, which is more than what can be said for a lot of this kind of bands. To cap off the positive aspects of the record, the production is great and in-your-face and most of the songs have at least one memorable passage, hook or riff.

Which brings me to the negative aspects of “In Shoals”, of WFAHM and of this style in general: see, I get the idea that the band’s more focused on the complexity and angularity of the riffing, than on writing good, memorable songs. Yes, the technicality is dizzying, the musicianship is almost untouchable and the mix of disparate elements into one unified whole is interesting and, sometimes, amazing. But, fuck, if I have to sit down and take notes like “great breakdown in the middle of song ‘Crooks at your door’”, or “heartrending jazzy passage on ‘The Certain Nothing’”, without actually mentioning that a song me likes a lot, then I know that I’m in trouble.

If truth be told, the only song I find truly impressive is the eight-minute trudge-athon “Scully”, which closes the record. With its doom-metal snail-paced rhythm, textured guitars and slowly-escalating bitterness and venom, I think that it is a highlight and –without really knowing their past efforts- an interesting foray of the band into territory that they should explore during their next records. For now, the only condemnation I can easily throw against them is their persistence in flogging a (half-) dead horse. I mean, c’mon, guys, originality has never hurt anyone, now, has it?…

6 spazzy complexities out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Lifeforce Records
- Website: War From A Harlots Mouth MySpace
- Band
- Nico: vocals
- Simon: guitar
- Daniel: guitar
- Filip: bass
- Paule: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. They Come In Shoals
- 02. No High Five For A C.oward
- 03. Briefing Security Werewolves On Red Alert
- 04. Crooks At Your Door
- 05. Justice From The Lips Of The Highest Bidder
- 06. Copyriot
- 07. The Certain Nothing
- 08. Appropriate Tools Required To Intercept And Obstruct Errorism
- 09. What Happens In The District… (Paper Agents)
- 10. …Stays In The District (I’m The Black Sheep Of Her Country)
- 11. Scully