Review Summary: Excellent post hardcore debut by a band from Luxembourg that is (yet?) almost totally unknown.
This is the my review for sputnikmusic.com and I do not write it because I think that ‘Danger mouth’ is the only contender for the album of the year (in fact, there are some better efforts by Mastodon, The Antlers, Karnivool, … already), but primarily because almost no-one seems to know this band and I am really convinced that many users here would really love this album.
Unfortunately, my English is far from being perfect, so after a brief overview, I’ll limit myself to a short track-by-track review.
Mutiny On The Bounty are from Luxembourg and their main influences are definitely At The Drive-In (especially the later records like ‘Relationship of command’) as well as post hardcore and math rock. ‘Danger mouth’ is their debut record, quite many songs are instrumentals, vocals constantly switch between clean and shouted parts, the production is quite perfect, although some may criticize that the guitars are quite dominant in comparison to the bass.
Now, for the songs:
‘Call me Cheesus’ opens the album with a short instrumental part which introduces the brilliant guitar work. There’s a nice refrain shortly after the vocals start, drums are great and the interplay of lead/rhythm guitar is well executed. Overall, the sound is very similar to late At The Drive-In here. 4/5
‘Give me Linux or I will Kick Your Ass” is definitely a terrible song title. Guitar work is structured similar again and the fast lead guitar parts in the middle are surely the highlight here. Nice drumming and shouted vocals throughout. 4/5
‘Continents’ starts more relaxed than the previous songs and reminds me of the heavier songs of Minus The Bear. Vocals nicely alter between clean and shouted parts and the refrain is highly memorable. I’d say many of the post hardcore albums released this year that are praised on sputnikmusic (the releases by Poison the Well or Emery, for example) do not contain such a brilliant song. 4.5/5
‘The Art of Escapology” is only a little faster and again delivers a brilliant refrain. 4/5
‘Cruz Candelaria’ is one of the best instrumentals written in the last years. The recurring main theme is adorable, the changes in tempo are perfectly done, drums are very nice, and the guitars are just incredible. 5/5
‘Go hide your neck’ has the raw charm and the punk attitude of early At The Drive-In (e.g., “Give it a name” from the El Gran Orgo EP) , although the shouted parts here are a little too out of tune this time. 3.5/5
The second instrumental, “Instructions to sink”, is very relaxed and gives some time to breathe. 3.5/5
“1,2,3,4 I Declare Thumb War” is basically comparable to the first two songs, although it is a little faster and the shouted parts dominate. 4/5
“Comfort in Silence” suffers from the rather weak refrain (“When you’re talking, do you mean it …”), but thankfully changes direction after its first repetition with a highly memorable second chorus that is repeated several times. 3.5/5
“We are the Men” is the weakest piece, although the drum effects in the end are really nice. 3/5
“One Man Orchestra” closes ‘Danger mouth’ with its third instrumental that again convinces in every aspect and additionally has some nice piano parts. 4/5
Overall, the pros are the brilliant, yet never ostentatious guitar work, the cohesive songwriting and the interesting instrumentals. Cons are maybe that the faster songs sound quite similar to a couple of other bands in this genre.
