Hailing from Los Angeles, Mouth of the Serpent is a five piece progressive death metal band that is simply dyeing to get their music heard and get out there into the big league, and with their latest EP entitled Manifest, it is clear that their rise to power will be very soon. Made up of six astounding examples of modern metal brutality, Manifest is a gem of musical excellence combining djent like guitar tones, ravenous bass grooves and gnarly, aggressive vocals to form; what is quite clearly a death metal masterpiece. Who needs a full album? Six tracks are all you need to make an impression, and Jesus Christ, does Mouth of the Serpent make a monstrous impression!
It’s quite clear that Manifest is an EP that is built around the whole down tuned, beat down laden guitar sound that is needed to ensure deathcore sounds as astoundingly brutal as possible, and as you can hear from the openings of tracks like the crushingly heavy ‘Cisterna’ and the charging ‘Entheogen’, the dual guitar and bass lines really produce a wall of sonic power which could blow your ear drums clear off if you turned it up too loud. It’s great to finally have a band who doesn’t give a damn about how heavy or loud they play while still making it sound musically stimulating and accessible at the same time.
There are some groove infections beat downs on this album, which will have you bouncing up and down like a deranged man in a mental asylum. Mouth of the Serpent have clearly written these songs with the intention of playing them live – as you can clearly tell from the random, manic bridge in ‘(B) The Unmaker’ and the slowed down, chant along chorus of ‘Psychosomatic Disorder’. If these songs sound so brutally heavy on album, just imagine how they are going to sound a hell of a lot louder in concert. Two words……. FREAKING AWESOME!
With every great album, there is an even greater album artwork. This is the case with Manifest in which the artwork depicts some giant monster (obviously referring to the bands large monstrous sound), coming out of the sky and decimating the earth below (obviously referring to how the band will blow your mind). It’s something that would look great in your collection. The artwork goes perfectly with the music portraying aggression, brutality and destruction all on one cover.
This is only an EP and by the time it is over, Mouth of the Serpent will have no doubt gained many more a fan. Fast, aggressive and manic, that’s the way to hook listeners, and that’s what Manifest is full of. Brutal, fist pump fests that sound like a man being eaten by a T-Rex…… BLOODY BRUTAL OR WHAT? [9/10]