War from a Harlots Mouth

Transmetropolitan (2007)

Brian Shultz

Berlin, Germany's War from a Harlots Mouth make some of the more creative metal on Lifeforce Records with their label debut, Transmetropolitan. You'll find many of the genre's distinctive sub-classifications here, including math metal, American metalcore, grind and death metal, as well as a little bit of jazz for good measure.

The band may not be as refined as Dillinger Escape Plan or as challenging as Psy0pus, but they've got the lockdown on time changes, a variety of vocal stylings, guitar squeals and fretboard frenzy. Songs can surge with slow-tempoed bursts "Mulder") or they can ring with the familiar sound of incalculable guitar chords ("Heeey… Let's Start a Band!"), with they often do. Those vocal stylings include pretty much the whole buffet: high screams, low screams, basement growls, inverted growls, raspy screeching, even some clean shouts…it's all there. The jazz pieces are few and far between, but their placements are perfect, offering a calm before and after the storm ("How to Disconnect from Your Social Surrounding in Half an Hour," "Thousand Complaints: One Answer"). "If You Want to Blame Us for Something Wrong, Please Abuse This Song!" is sort of funny, since instead of machine gun drumming, there are sounds of an actual machine gun being fired.

Transmetropolitan isn't terribly exciting or memorable, but War from a Harlots Mouth definitely do some appealing, cool things with their style of choice.

STREAM / E-CARD
How to Disconnect from Your Social Surrounding in Half an Hour
Heeey… Let's Start a Band!
Transmetropolitan