Mouth Of The Architect – Quietly

I wonder who recommended this band to me. Somehow I am not quite sure, but uit must have been a friend a few years ago while we were sitting at the plaza in front of the Dom, Cologne’s huge cathedral. I found the first record “Time & Withering” (2004) at our local recordstore, a 4-track monster that drags itself on for almost 40 minutes. Usually I would have backed off from music like this, but there must have been something (of which I really don’t know what it is) which kept me listening to the record quite a lot. Guess what, I even bought their second album “The Ties That Bind” (2006). Six songs this time, and maybe it’s just me but I felt this one was slightly easier to listen to. Still very thick and slow, but yet a little lighter, at least what I thought.

So now comes Mouth Of The Architect’s record “Quietly” and this gets even better. Long, dragging songs which go on and on forver, at least that’s what it seems like. But then they break up the monotony with samples from movies. I have no idea from which movies, but the samples make sense at the points where they are placed on the record. The voice is a bit strange a just a little bit too, uhm, how do I say this, pressed? Sore? But it fits the music and so I have no complaints. Of course you have to drop names like Isis or Neurosis, but this is more. It seems like they combine all the good parts from all those countless bands who now play this kind of music. It’s not just heavy stuff, they also play with dynamics and bring down the noise to a minimum only to break out again with the next part. I really like the diversity of this record as it brings really heavy moments, but it also has great melodies. Heck, they even use piano parts and one song has female vocals which is a huge contrast to the normal voice. The overall mood of this record though really is “quiet”, if you like. It may sound strange, but I would consider this to be a “quiet” record. Because of the atmosphere it creates while listening to it. And that’s what I really like about it.