Band:	Mouth Of The Architect
Album:	The Ties That Blind
Style:	Post-metal, Atmospheric sludge metal
Release date:	2006
A review by:	Herzebeth

01. Baobab
02. No One Wished To Settle Here
03. Carry On
04. Harboring an Apparition
05. At Arms Length
06. Wake Me Up When It's Over

Lately I've been bombarded with a lot of Post-Metal releases to review; bands like Cult Of Luna, Year Of No Light and Ganon blew my mid off and I was left craving for more from this genre?but man I surely wasn't expecting something like Mouth Of The Architect. If the aforementioned bands blew me away, then Mouth Of The Architect butchered what was left from me.

Is this the best Post-Metal album of the year? I'm not sure, but it is close enough though. This band is doing what Pelican did in 2005 (creating the most innovative Post-Metal sound of the year); I'm not going to say this is better, but it is surely different believe me. If the vocals were cleaner and the riffs weren't as heavy, "The Ties That Blind" would have been a Post-Rock album so, go figure.

What truly enhances the brilliance of this album are the textures and melodies found in it; yes, the vocals and the heavier parts add "the twist", but 10 out of 15 minutes of No One Wished To Settle Here are harmonious passages with intricate melodies surrounding the atmosphere. Their songwriting is one of the most complex factors as you can see; the arrangements and the tones have a really bizarre construction, average songs usually have an ascending structure which explodes in the very end, but the songs found in this record have an anticlimax procedure that first ascends, then explodes, then descends and then a crazy sequence of musical events go by to finally reach an odd fade-out that only serves as an overture for the next track?damn that was hard to explain.

This album guarantees one of the most incredible musical incidents you've ever experienced; Mouth Of The Architect went beyond any other Post-Metal band's imagination, this is by far the most original piece I've heard in a long time. I found myself enjoying every single minute of "The Ties That Blind", and I'm sure the genre followers will easily do it as well.

Best Tracks: "No One Wished To Settle Here", "Wake Me When It's Over", "Harboring an Apparition"