“Mouth of the Architect” Path of Eight 2016 CD-REVIEW by Nabil Hossam
Mouth of the Architect is a post-metal band from Ohio, United States. The band formed in 2003 and it consists of five members: Jason Watkins [vocals & keyboards], Steve Brooks and John Lakes [guitar & vocals], Evan Danielson [bass guitar] and Dave Mann [drums].
So let’s talk about the album, Path of Eight is their fifth full length album. It consists of “eight” tracks which might be what the album’s name was derived from, or vice versa. The first track is more of an intro to the album but a long one (04:26 minutes). What you will notice about the album is how strong it is instrumentally and as a progressive metal fan you will enjoy something like that. The album in general is progressive/sludge and in addition to its slow tempo it is enriched with many great guitar plays. The vocals were catchy at many points too which added to this album greatly. The album has got a strong start and a strong end too. Some bands tend to put the strongest tracks in the first half of the album, which might lead into a loss of interest while you are listening to the album so the distribution of the tracks should take the strength of each track into consideration. That’s what Mouth of the Architect did in Path of Eight.
Now let’s move through this path of eight by taking it track by track:
The album started with “Ritual Bell”, a slow tempo mellow track that was nothing but an intro to the album. It’s also a great preparation for one of the album’s highlights, “Fever Dream”.
“Fever Dream” is the second track, and I considered it as one of the strongest tracks of the album, musically and vocally, if not the strongest. The track has got slow drum beats with catchy melodies and great clean vocals, followed by few harsh vocals near the end. The main strength of this track is the melodies that showed how talented those guys are. Such a great start of the album.
“The Priestess” is the third track, and it’s a pure sludge metal track with stoner/ambient influences and female clean vocals. A soothing track that I prefer to hear near the end of the album. In addition to being catchy the ambient influences give you goosebumps.
The fourth track is “Seven the Soul”, and it is one of the strongest tracks of the album, along with “Fever Dream”. It’s also the heaviest and it contained many catchy heavy riffs. A good mixture of clean and harsh vocals ended with a beautiful solo.
Track number five is “Drown the Old”, and I consider it the weakest among them musically. The kept the same slow tempo of the album and the vocals are almost at the same level, but it wasn’t rich musically like the other tracks so nothing prominent. You wouldn’t mind listening to it though among the other tracks as the album will get stronger again the way it started.
And here we go, “Stretching out” is the longest track (07:19 minutes long) yet an enjoyable tracks. The clean vocals and the soothing melodies create some kind of a peaceful environment around you while you are listening to this track.
“Fallen Star” is another track of the album’s highlights. It’s as the same level as “Fever Dream”, except that it’s way heavier. The catchy heavy riffs are the strengths this time. In addition to the good vocals the song is very strong musically and it is actually the strongest among them musically. It put the album back on the right way and as I mentioned before, the end of the album is as strong as its start. So if you enjoy this album this track will definitely be one of your favorite tracks.
The eighth and last track of this path has the same name as the album “Path of Eight”. Another strong track with both harsh and clean vocals and catchy melodies, especially near the end of it. As I mentioned before I prefer to see the third track “The Priestess” instead of it to end this album but this track is very good musically that I really didn’t mind it as the ending track.
I give this album an overall rating of 9.0/10
Album track-list:
01. Ritual Bell
02. Fever Dream
03. The Priestess
04. Sever The Soul
05. Drown The Old
06. Stretching Out
07. Fallen Star
08. Path of Eight
Nabil Hossam / MHF
MHF
