Band:	The Prestige
Album:	Black Mouths
Style:	Post-metal
Release date:	April 2012

01. The Truth
02. Burn Down Vegas
03. Ballroom
04. Crane Flies
05. Pluie
06. The Never Ending End
07. Forward
08. Backward
09. A Thousand Trees In My Closet
10. Hooks & Lips

I've been spinning Black Mouths by The Prestige for a week or so and am still not entirely sure how I feel about it. These Frenchies play le hard core in the new mode, much more akin to say Converge, with complicated riffs and screamed vox as opposed to my preference, the knuckledragging power chord bashing of, say, Slapshot.

So the initial impression was a bit of a turn off. These damned kids with their new fangled hard core were screaming about burning down Vegas*? Get the hell off my lawn! Or rather dégage de ma pelouse! /Author shaking his fist.

However the first impression was fleeting and the more I listened, the more I found myself enjoying the band's energy and chaotic approach at melding punk and post elements to the music. The energy is undeniable, and at times with a little bit of a fun feel to it. The guitars aren't full on distortion pedal to the max, d00dz, but often are just kinda cranked gain, giving it an almost old artsy-Brit punk feel at times, only offset against the core.

Other tracks like "Pluie" are just posty-chill, a nice change of pace from the screaming and chaotic pounding of instruments.

It's not an album I am likely to spin frequently, but will enjoy from time. It's also not an album I'd recommend to most of our metalhead users, but if you're into the Converge style of modern hard core, it might very be worth your while to give this a spin.

Oh, and these guys have quite the sense of humor as well? when doing some "research" into the band, saw this update on their facebook page:

"June 5 - If you look for "Black Mouths" on sharing websites like filestube you will mostly find BJ videos of Tori Black. You now have an excuse for having such a porn orientated web history."

So I suppose that is incentive enough for most of you to try and check her? er? them out.


*Sorry, but the Paris in Vegas is a close as I'm gonna get to Paris, France this year. Fuck the financial apocalypse that hit me this year. Grrrrr. Hopefully the casino, in keeping with the Paris theme, has a cool slot machine where instead of hoping to line up 7's or fruit, you cross fingers to line up severed heads of Marie Antoinette or King Louis XVI.