Album Review: Fuming Mouth - Last Day Of Sun
Reviewed by Sam Jones
Amongst the newer wave of death metal, Fuming Mouth are often lauded, albeit one of many, as a stellar new name amongst extreme metal’s engorged ranks. Formed in 2013, from Massachusetts, United States, the band have become regarded for their crust-laden seething death metal that has seen a spike in popularity within prior years. The band has seen numerous Demos, Singles and a Split with Gatlin, before finally unveiling the first full length work, The Grand Descent, in 2019. Releasing an EP, Beyond The Tomb, the following year, the band released a new Single a year later before at last knuckling down to unleash this sophomore album: Last Day Of Sun, penned for a November 3rd release date. Signing a contract with Nuclear Blast, it’s surely indicative of the band’s climbing reputation and so, that’s where we are today. So, let’s dive in and see what this band is made of.
The opening second this record begins it’s a sheer wall of tone that greets your senses. I like how the band don’t need to bring huge swathes of riffs down on us for the tone to exact its malice; just by letting the guitar work ring out do the band see to it the weight this record brings is received. With that said, it’s good to note that the band haven’t overdriven the power of their guitar tone so completely that we can’t hear and make out where the songwriting is taking us. Fuming Mouth are renowned for their vast soundscapes but it’s nice to understand song structure, the actual guitar riffs themselves etc without feeling bombarded or needlessly crushed by the tone their signature sound entails. Their tone may permeate through each track, and each segment of songwriting, but I was still able to pick out the actual riffs that help compose the songs.
Although the band’s immense scope is well known amongst longtime fans, I appreciate the drums for not being the typical blast beat marathons that could so easily have been a mainstay for an aggressive act like Fuming Mouth. Careful listening showcases how the drums are rarely enacting anything akin to a blast beat or something more ferocious than what we would dictate to be conventional drumming. Yet, I’d argue the band didn’t need to implement anything pertaining to intense patterns for the songwriting, due to its ever changing nature, has bled into the drumming and therefore the drums are always changing things up. A track may include a particular drum beat, but it’s going to alter a good dozen times over before the same track is over. You can receive a beating of bass drums one moment before the songwriting slows down, and the drums with it, and great, crashing Tom-Tom strikes bludgeon the soundscape. You can feel the might and energy thrust into these strikes, and all the more so when those strikes become slowed, the audience anticipating each one to come.
A welcome surprise was to discover the vocals aren’t simply the gruff and boisterous variant that you’d usually expect from this kind of record. The vocals, on the whole, are these throaty and bellowing deliveries that seem to stem from the depths of their frontman’s bowels, thrust upwards and out with little finesse or clarity rendered to them. Imagine my surprise then, with “The Silence Beyond Life”, when that same voice brings out something much cleaner and melodic. It throws up a whole swathe of questions as to what the band could do next, for this vocal delivery is so far removed from what appears to be the makeup of the band. But what pleased me most was how well this cleaner delivery worked within their songwriting; often when a band experiment with clean vocals its to the detriment of their fanbase and their own ability to convey strong and promising metal. Yet, in Fuming Mouth’s case, it works to their advantage since the songwriting morphs around it so the two seemingly opposing elements aren’t at odds with each other.
The variety of tracks and pacing and aesthetic that you’ll find herein is also striking. When one first hears Fuming Mouth, you’d naturally presume that’s what the record will consist of from start to finish but, the further we delve into this album, the further we realise those initial preconceptions were skewed. There are songs that are bunt force trauma inducing and roar in your face, but you also have a piece like “Leaving Euphoria” that’s much more nuanced and serene. There’s “Disgusterlude” which serves as a brief intersection between one half of the album, and the other, clearly demonstrating the band’s attention to structure album-wide let alone throughout individual tracks. It goes to show that while you have an idea of what the record will have in store for you, that doesn’t mean the band themselves would be satisfied if those preconceptions were all confirmed, and across twelve tracks in total the record would be done a disservice should each song follow the same pattern or atmosphere. An album like this needed variety and Fuming Mouth have provided that and then some.
In conclusion, Fuming Mouth’s second album is a sweeping display of modern death metal that simultaneously holds nothing back and yet offers up numerous elements that may be surprising, and enticing, to behold. I’d honestly thought Fuming Mouth had released more studio albums than they have, for the professionalism and variety they have within is astounding for such a young band barely a full decade old. With a forty-five minute span and twelve full tracks you get plenty out of this record, and with the multiple differing kinds of songwriting the band thrown in, Last Day Of Sun is a thoroughly pleasing album. The sporadically cleaner and melodic sections only benefit the band as new audiences, like myself, have thus learnt Fuming Mouth are more than your typical modern extreme metal act. I think this record will do well for the band and demonstrate that, while 2019’s The Grand Descent was a storming opening, this new record, released through Nuclear Blast no less, is an excellent indication of Fuming Mouth’s cumulative promise.
