Mouthus - Saw A Halo

Mouthus
Saw a Halo
(10.2007, Load)
8.0/10

Mouthus created Saw a Halo (along with everything else they have released since their inception) as the solution for bad neighbors. You know, the kind that have innumerable occupants that are awake at all hours of every day - that never learned how to use their "indoor voice" - who seem to be endlessly and obnoxiously laughing outside your bedroom window. Mouthus is for the kind of people that seem to feel that since they are outside they should just open up the backdoor and turn up the bass on their stereo so that they can hear it while they talk with their cousin who is pounding her own tunes in the car parked five feet away from that same backdoor…and all at 3 in the morning. I obviously have an axe to grind here and Mouthus is the solution. They always have been when the battle gets dirty because dirty is basically synonymous with Mouthus. However, on my first listen of Saw a Halo I was shocked. The opening track, "Your Far Church," is a virtual U-turn for the band, with Mouthus appearing to be turning a sympathetic leaf to those who have endured their crushing audio shrapnel. The opener is drifting acoustic ditty that actually resembles a song. For Mouthus that means vocals with discernable lyrics and instrumentation that can be argued as melodious. You might even be able to pass it off as pretty. However, a minute before "Your Far Church" closes, Mouthus' signature audio destruction begins to leach in and the following track, "Armies Between," transforms into what we have come to expect of the grizzly duo. The remainder of the album tracks a glorious progression in production (the album is their first recorded in a studio) and textured gristle from 2006's The Long Salt with additional depth and movement (including another track featuring discernable lyrics!). The album is another successful speaker destroying, neighbor defeating machine of a record. Turn this up to eleven and watch your neighbors moving trucks arrive. Recommended for noise addicts with no sympathy.

-Mr. Thistle

Mouthus - "Your Far Church"