War From A Harlots Mouth started two years ago, in Berlin (Germany, you nincompoop), since they were there anyway, because well, they live there. Harlot means hooker, by the way (I looked it up), so I don’t know what the hell their bandname means. WFAHM make mathcore with a bit of hardcore, grindcore and a tiny bit of jazz; a busy combination. The band released a split in 2006 and now, their debut album ‘Transmetropolitan’ has arrived. An album almost worthy of the word: awesome.

Kick off: the first song already makes clear what the target of this band is: everything. It’s quick, has lots of riffs and after a minute all of a sudden there’s a jazzy part, after which they pick up the anger and dread again. Thing that stands out through the mayhem is the different vocal styles. It goes from shrieks to deep grunts to pig like squeals and all are done very well and equally well.
Second notice goes to the great production. It manages to keep everything together very nicely. If you are familiar with Into The Moat’s ‘The Design’, it is very comparable to that album’s production. It somehow sounds expensive, thick and layered.

Also important of course with this kind of music is the instrumental musicianship, since well, there’s 245 riffs per album, the guitarists have to be good and creative and the drummer has to change between rhythms a lot, so he is no less significant. WFAHM have covered these areas very well. The drums are mostly just very tight, with some smart fills here and there and there is some really awesome riffage going on. Of course the issue with those great riffs is that they are replaced by new ones so quickly you hardly get time to appreciate them thoroughly. Then again, that is an aspect you get used to if you listen to more of this style of music and if you get to that point, it’s just something that makes you appreciate the music more.

The chaos and slaughter subsides for a moment with song four, ‘Trife Life’, a trip hop interlude that breaks the pace nicely, although it is kind of strange to suddenly appear in the midst of the aforementioned carnage.

After a song as you have come to expect from them, there is song six, ‘Mulder’, the albums’ epic centrepiece. Clocking in at seven minutes, this one doesn’t get tedious for a second. It also shows more of the band proper songwriting skill instead of their usual capitalising on violent riffs and tons of pace changes. The shrieks, screams and grunts on this song go especially well with the instrumental layers. ‘Mulder’ even has several different emotions. Like after about 90 seconds, a staccato part starts, with only clean guitars. Of course, later on, this is build into something faster and more violent, but the song doesn’t lose its wide scope and epic feel.
From songs seven through eleven, it’s mostly anger, mayhem and destruction again, as it should be. Notable are the wonderful and unexpected breakdown at the end of ‘Thousand Complaints, One Answer’, the machinegun sounds accompanied by low chords in song eight (title too long and silly to mention) and just a bunch of really good riffs scattered among the remaining songs.

The conclusion is short. If you like your mathcore to come with a little extra frantic, War From A Harlots Mouth’s ‘Transmetropolitan’ is your thing. That being said, the band could focus a bit more here and there, like they do during ‘Mulder’, but I’m not really complaining. Actually, fuck it… Keep on doing what you’re doing, WFAHM people.