The latest endeavor by Ohio’s Mouth of the Architect marks a continuation of this unit’s post-hardcore sludgy sojourn, as QUIETLY runs just shy of an hour within an eight-track span. Dense rhythms and suffocating guitars immerse your eardrums in a tantalizing go-round of sound on the oppressive menace “A Beautiful Corpse” and the undulating “Rocking Chairs and Shotguns” while “Guilt and the Like” and “Hate and Heartache” surpass typecast loud-soft dynamic shifts with bursts of bombastic guitars and distressed vocal roars while constructing an impenetrable wall of sound courtesy of a cavernous bottom end heard across the duration of the disc. Emitting a creepy tension throughout not unlike Isis or Neurosis, this beautiful yet discordant affair contains a barrage of burly buildups and constantly changing rhythmic patterns which do the service of paying homage to genre leaders while carving out MOTA’s very own spot on the avant garde metal totem pole. www.translationlossrecords.com –Mike SOS