Mouth Of The Architect are an interesting band. Hailing from the U.S., they call themselves sludge metal, but the music is much more complex and progressive than that. Think of Mogwai, Periphery, and Between The Buried And Me having an unconcious orgy, and this would be the product: a chaotic musical entity that has an interesting side depsite the fact it can scare the hell out of people with its aggression. Mouth Of The Architect usually release epic, lengthy albums to express their creativity; usually it takes a ten minute song to get everything on the table. With their latest album an EP, they perform no differently. Even though there's only four tracks, the album clocks to thirty minutes, making it a worth listen and not just some cheap buy.
The Violence Beneath kicks off with the title track, and the music certainly reflects that. With roaring vocals, hampering distortion, and crashing drums, it sounds like a cyclone of destruction. However, somewhere in the mix, the guitars manage to ring out a couple progressive melodies, and there's even a keyboard that seems to haunt the listener throughout the entire track. No doubt the band is aggressive in its dirty, sludge metal ways, but they do it with class. Rather than create grim, brittle music that borders the edge of depression, Architect do it with energy and excitement. This first track is an excellent blend of progressive metal and hardcore sludge metal. The second track is the longest one on the album, and is much more different from the first one. For one, "Buried Hopes" is much quieter. The strings are softly picked over clean vocals, with a few mournful chords mixed in. The vocals sound ethreal, even when screamed, so there's a mystical quality that adds to the progressive side of the band. Of course things start to get chaotic halfway through, but there's a momentary break where the guitars become eerily shrill, creating a very distorted dimension of sound that continues to carry over even when the other guitars hammer in to add their distortion. It doesn't leave much room for the drums or bass, but they're there, just buried, as the song suggests.
"Restore" is a live performance that is a bit fuzzy on production. The guitars seem to fade in and out, but the vocals and drums can be heard clearly; a rare occurrence. It makes Architect sound like a very raw sludge metal band for the most part, but there's a section where piano comes in to remind listeners that they still like to get a bit more complex with the music than just chugging riffs, screaming, and drums. The piano section seems a bit repetitive, but adds great depth overall. Finally there's a short cover of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes." It's very slow, very raw and distorted, and strays quite a bit from the original. However, with the doom metal-like pace and mournful clean vocals, it actually sounds very intriguing and spears a new side to Architect's style. This is basically one their better sludge metal songs that stay raw, but also sound beautiful at the same time.
While The Violence Beneath isn't the greatest album that Architect has ever developed, fans of the band will certainly want to pick this up. It's a great intermission/ stepping stone for the next album because it leaves the listener hanging on where the group will go next. It is very possible they may continue with the flow of their previous album, but Violence hints at more catastrophe, more destruction, and all the more enticement one could want. For new fans who are just getting into this, they'll certainly enjoy it if they like aggressive music with a bit of thoughtful melodies incorporated rather than just mindless, epic strumming and screaming.
