Fuming Mouth : "Last Day of Sun"

 Even when this crusty death metal band opens their album by pounding it out on all fronts to kick off their sophomore full-length, I try to not get too excited about it too fast. I have learned that most extreme metal bands can wow you with the intensity of the first song, then fail to maintain that energy when directing it into the structure of an entire album, It takes a second listen to "Respect and Blasphemy" before I can hear the nuance separating it from the opening track as my first listen to this album found the two songs blending in. By the time we get to "The Silence Beyond Life" they are working in darker more melodic shades of sound into the deliberate riffing and even a sung chorus. The song wanders into other places as guitar solos find ways to sprout out from the cracks in a more death metal fashion. 

There is more of a hard-core stomp to "The Sign of Pain".  This song also highlights the fact that this album is well-produced. There is a dense and gritty guitar sound that hits in the way music like this needs to, while layered with other tones to darken things. It owes as much to Converge as it does Entombed. When things get more melodic on "Leaving Euphoria" it is done in a hypnotically brooding manner.  It owes more to bands like Planesmistakenforstars, or any of the early emotive hard-core in that vein. "I'll Find You" hits with the kind of hammering double bass that propels most mainstream metal. The vocals are amped with a hard-core anger more than a death growl. 

They lean into more of hard-core's punk side with the drumming to "Kill the Disease" which puts them in the sonic zip code of bands like Ringworm. What they did previous to this song was more interesting, this is a little straightforward. The title track chugs into a powerful groove that owes more to 90s hard-core. "RTP" rides the line where hard-core crosses over with thrash. The vocals drop down into a low death growl as they cruise against the riff. There is a more sludged-out feel to the bass line that leads into "Bruial Practices". The song speeds up into a more thrashing attack, before they ebb back down into a slower pound, as the vocals scream to " fuck this place and everyone in it"

The last song is carried by a more nuanced riff. Sung vocals haunt the background of the mix. They wind the riff around in interesting configurations, but it is not the album's most focused song. I will still round this up to a 9.5, as it is well done, I appreciate the lyrical sentiments, and the overall oppressive mood, that still leaves room for melody shows they care about songwriting, but do not have to compromise to do so.