Fuming Mouth // Last Day Of Sun // Album Review

Our last day is upon us and Fuming Mouth has brought upon our destruction!

Boston-based Fuming Mouth is currently leading the charge in the new wave of death metal bands. It formed in 2013 and turned heads with some great demos & splits, but it wasn’t until 2019’s “The Grand Descent” that really shook things up. The heaviest & most prolific album of that year really saw the band hone in on their sound.

The perfect merging of ODSM with the sensibility of modern hardcore to create some of the most punishing riffs & breakdowns of that year. 2020 saw the release of “Beyond the Tomb” which within its title track saw Fuming Mouth starting to experiment with more melody which brought another string to the already amazing bow that Fuming Mouth were already brandishing.

Now with their sophomore album “Last Day of Sun” the group have teamed up again with the legendary Kurt Ballou of Converge at his studio, God City, in Salem, Massachusetts to again push the group’s sound & create what I believe is the best work the band has created.

The opening track “Out of Time” really sets the tone. A slow heavy distortion-soaked guitar riff draws you in, while drummer James Davis’s superb double bass footwork & primal-like drumming hypnotise you before the band unleashes.

Really picking up the proceedings with a great d-beat style verse before bringing back the chorus gives the track that nice balance. The melodic lead riffs over the heavy, blood-soaked guitars give it another dimension. A mix of beauty & agony as the track builds to a close & the band introduces a great swinging outro & breakdown ending that caps the track off well. The best opening track on an album I’ve heard this year!

“The Silence Beyond Life” shows the future evolution of the band. A beautiful yet deadly track. Perfect merge of melo death & ballad this track is truly breathtaking. Heavy buzzsaw seeped verse sections with a soaring chorus with vocalist & guitarist Mark Whelan’s anguished perfect vocal delivery.

Using great song writing to pull you in as you feel the track is ending but grabs you one more time & leaves you with the chorus stuck in your head for days. The track is the most expansive the group has written & also feels like the most inventive song in death metal currently.

“I’ll Find You” feels like the perfect death metal soaked love song. An interesting riff style on this track in partnership with Whelan’s vocal melody helps make this track instantly hooky. Also a great bridge section allowing the thick & chunky bass tone to drive the track before the band picks it back up again. The closing moments as Whelan unleashes vocally which combined with the riffing style make for an inventive yet again highly memorable track.

Now a track like “Kill the Disease” feels like the perfect middle finger to the recent health issues band founder Whelan has been battling.

You can feel it touch each song in some way but here it feels like its most brutal & personal. A track that is full of anger & heartache. A perfect blending Dismember & Entombed with that hardcore swagger Fuming Mouth sometimes harnesses. “Fight back! Kill The Disease” spewing from Whelan really hits home & gives the track just that much more energy & meaning behind it.

Breaking the track down to a slow, thumbing closing section highlights just how brillant the band are at the fast paced sections & the ungodly fucking hell slow moments. The band has it all that’s for sure.

It’s hard to choose a stand out on the album with it being so fantastic but “R.I.P. (Rest in Piss)” has to take it. A pure headbanging anthem with catchy riffing & a brilliant drumming performance from James Davis.

With a section of the song feeling like a machine gun being set off & creating one of the best spinkicking, nose breaking & skull smashing breakdowns on the whole record this track is truly a work of art.

Closer “Postfigurement” brings back some of the melodic elements from earlier in the album to give this track a very expansive & ethereal sound. Building slowly element by element the song has its bare bones moment with the perfectly curated guitar tone that Andrew Budwey & Whelan have made for this album.

Some fantastic leads on this track too help elevate more as the track builds again slowly leaving the album close on the most beautiful & even angelic moment on the album. Feeling like a true journey that you have joined the band on every step of the way & the band has given it their all.

“Last Day Of Sun” is not only the band’s most extensive album but it’s an album the death metal genre needs right now. Melding moments of catchy melody with some of the most punishing & chaotically brutal riffs of the year to create an album that is truly remarkable.

Review: Joseph Mitchell

Last Day Of The Sun is out via Nuclear Blast on 3rd November 2023