METAL GOAT

Nothing beats receiving a physical album in your mailbox for review and otherwise. It’s the same elation that a kid experiences when the television controller is first discovered or that candy comes in better tastes and colours. Yip, it is that awesome!

A neatly packaged album [accompanied with a 12 page lithographic artwork booklet] arrived a month ago entitled Ten: Negative: Sixes by a British band called Mouthful of Flies. The album drips with death punching riffs, dark acoustics and monstrous vocals. That’s right, ten grinding tracks to windmill through!

As far as the history of the album is concerned, the United Kingdom based band released Ten: Negative: Sixes in 2007 (Yes, it has been a while). Mouthful of Flies garnered some positive attention through live shows and radio play – most notably Bruce Dickenson’s 6 Music Rock Show. The album still remains to be the crowning jewel of Mouthful of Flies repertoire but it is much more than that – it is demonically impressive!

The album opens on an enigmatic and speed-fuelled track titled “Deadened Soul”. The guitars and drums are slightly reminiscent of Disturbed – it’s tight, neat and has that machine-gun prowess. The vocals are almost clean singing but remain brusque and the lyrics are righteously powerful. The track list progresses flawlessly into another fist-pumping title, “March of The Clones” with pleasing riffs and thunderous drums. Again, the mosh-pit tendencies of the album are just amazing. Further down the album, the short track “Breeder” ropes me in with the invigorating rhythmic guitars. The breakdown is incredible and the iron-fist impelling nature of Mouthful of Flies makes this a stand-out, must hear track.

There is no doubt that the band members are skilled and highly proficient musicians and that immediately shows throughout the album. Furthermore, Ten: Negative: Sixes is studio quality and was produced, engineered and mixed by Mouthful of Flies band members, Dean Smith and Daniel Stevenson. As far as I am concerned, there is only one track that loses edge, “Black Magick”, because the vocals remain veiled in the background of the prominent drums and guitars. The raw energy created by the instruments and aptitude of Mouthful of Flies makes the release Ten: Negative: Sixes well worth the listen! I dutifully recommend it to any traditional heavy metal fan!

Published on Air Guitar Blog