War From a Harlots Mouth

There's something to be said for the breakdown that just keeps pounding away until you're like, "Damn, that actually bludgeoned me to a point of brutality." The latest album from Germany's War From a Harlot's Mouth definitely more than exhausts the briefly enjoyable ideas it contains over its 36-minute run time (although the eight-minute-plus closing track gives the album a truly heavy ending, something that has been lacking in the cheesy metalcore category lately). Ridiculously tacked on faux-jazz parts make for amusing interruptions, especially with a drummer so heavy-handed he sounds like Jason Roeder trying to follow Charlie Mingus. That is to say, ill fitting and tactless, with none of the punk rock inspiration behind stronger jazz metal excerpts like early Dillinger Escape Plan. Instead, this is more like warmed-over Between the Buried and Me, with the left-field genre bending extending none too far from deathcore to math metal. If that range works for you, then a nice, crunchy release awaits.