Album Review: Mouth For War - Bleed Yourself
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Having had the misfortune of issuing their debut EP, An Ear Kept to the Ground, just as everything shut down around them would have been enough to sink many bands. But Mouth For War used the downtime wisely to craft their debut full-length, ready for the return of some sort of sanity and Life Cast in Glass arrived in 2021. Now, the Colorado Springs Metalcore five-piece have a new record to unleash in the shape of Bleed Yourself and, having shared stages with the likes of Knocked Loose and Malevolence, Mouth For War are in no mood to take prisoners.
What Mouth For War have delivered is a thirteen track pit killing machine, cocked and loaded and the band appear ready to pull the trigger. There’s no preamble on this one, only a clearing of the proverbial throat before dropping into the heavy guitars and muscular riffage of Roses in Place of Your Ashes. Guttural vocals and huge beatdowns are the order of the day, as well as blitzkrieg drumming, giving songs like The Plight of Those You Left Behind and Captivated an anger you don’t want to be a part of (or maybe you do).
No Grace and Taste of Steel continue in a more ‘traditional’ metalcore vein, with skipping riffs and seismic bass work, all heading to the Promised Land of a meaty interlude. But, just when you think you’ve a handle on what Bleed Yourself is about, along comes In Lieu of Flowers a reverb-heavy interlude that segues into the record’s second half and acts as, dare I suggest, the albums ‘Hold my beer moment.’
If you think Bleed Yourself was heavy and aggressive before, the second half will have you running for the hills. The Devil, and its thematic companion, Talking to God take us into the realm of some weighty hardcore; the shock and awe drumming has all the subtly of incoming artillery, with the guitars acting as return fire. Both also disrupt the barrage with unsettling accompaniments in the form of disembodied voices or uncanny, disorienting sounds.
Under the Gun and the closing title track continue with this assault on the senses, but it is in Saturate Me that the most egregious onslaught can be found. The unassuming countryfied beginning in no way prepares you for the excoriating vocal or the machine gun guitars. Think Terror or Hatebreed at their most confrontational and you’re somewhere near. Mouth For War also save their biggest, most chest-beating breakdown for the climax of this one, meaning the remainder of the album has lofty shoes to fill.
Not willing to be outdone, Shattered Self moves into a more Slam-oriented sound, one that is grizzled and oozing and offering its own new depth of depraved beatdown.
If you like the stomping metallic hardcore of the above-mentioned Knocked Loose and Malevolence then Mouth For War’s new album is for you. It has just the right balance of emotional vulnerability and punishing aggression and should be wrecking venues across the globe before you know it.
