Fuming Mouth
The Grand Descent

Release Date: 2019 | Tracklist

I should really try to review less hardcore, metalcore, and death metal. Only so many different ways you can say “heavy” and “vicious” before the reader says in their head “Ok, I get it, I definitely CANNOT play this when I have the aux in the car with my relatively normal friends.” Heavy. Hard. Big. Tough. Grr. The best part about doing these reviews is how little you have to actually elaborate on why this album is so brutal or whatever adjective you choose to describe it synonymous with “angry.” If you say something “goes hard” it's like the community that listens to this music intrinsically understands what that means. Like some kind of caveman instinct to swing your arms around like a dreidel when you hear groovy, loud as hell HM-2 riffs and pissed-off vocals. Honestly, I love this recent trend of OSDM bands deciding to add big fat fist-swinging breakdowns at the end of their songs. Being that the metalcore scene has currently been taken over by butt rock and progressive metal with occasional breakdowns, it's nice to have bands like this that don’t waste your time and get straight to the parts that you came for.


This album is that low IQ knuckle dragging ***. The Grand Descent does not have key changes or anything resembling a developed album concept. This is the kind of stuff I would turn on in HS for the kid who thinks Linkin Park is heavy. If Fuming Mouth was a bully, it would poison your dog right after taking your lunch money and ripping it to shreds in front of your face. Maybe even defecate on your grandmother’s grave. Think of this album's sound as if Gatecreeper and Nails had an affair that ended with one of them behind bars and the other dead. The riffs are doomy as hell at times, like on “Burning Hand” or “Visions Of Purgatory” and they build up like political tension in a U.S. client state, and the breakdowns are the CIA-financed coups that send everything into the gutter. Faster songs like “The Great Equalizer” or “Fatalism” are where it is really at though. The fight riffs in these songs make me want to commit bare-handed genocide against the drywall in my room. I hope to god these guys come to my town one day so I can witness first-hand someone getting body slammed like it’s a cage match during one of these breakdowns. Good god the guitar tone on this album is huge and nasty. It’s either the case that these guys know that the way to compensate for lack of technical skill is to make everything sound like a chainsaw big enough to chop redwoods, or they just don’t care about their listeners' eardrums in the slightest. I don’t know. I’m running out of ways to describe that this music is loud and aggressive. As to the shortcomings of this album, it definitely isn’t anything original as much as just very well-executed. The last few songs honestly aren’t that great, and retread the same ground as everything that came before it. If you’re looking for a varied listening experience that rewards analysis, spare yourself the time and go listen to the new Opeth or something. The lyrics, if you were concerned about their quality, are serviceable, from what I can make out. Stuff gets destroyed. Personal problems get vented out in the most hateful and double-fisted way possible. The delivery of the vocalist makes up for any lack of depth, the way he says “WHY THE F*CK DO I HAVE TO SUFFER” or “KNEEL DOWN” is great. Overall, this album feels like, I don’t know, something really bad happening to you over and over again. In a good way.

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3.6 great