MUTE

The Raven

Written by: PP on 17/10/2008 00:58:17

Question: are A Wilhelm Scream and No Use For A Name ranked relatively high on your favorite bands lists? If so, read on because MUTE might be of great interest you. If the 'punk rock drumbeat' annoys the living shit out of you, then don't expect to like their album "The Raven" at all. That's the basic starting point for this review. Hailing from Quebec City, Canada, MUTE namely possess a sound that's about perfectly placed in between those two, featuring the occasional intricate riff and breakneck speed technical passage on top of a melodicore platform that offers little variation otherwise.

The problem with MUTE is their expression, or rather lack thereof. For the large majority of "The Raven", the band plays that aforementioned midpoint decently, but there is so little variation that it's actually hard to pinpoint where the band goes wrong. It's as if you're listening to a small differentiation of the same song for 12 songs, much of this caused by their vocalist who has the same monotonous clean croon throughout the record. Think Adjusted/NUFAN style here. While that maybe isn't always a problem (see any old Bad Religion record, for instance), it becomes doubly so when the band simply isn't able to deliver a strong enough base song to multiply from.

On a couple of songs, however, such as "Lost And Found", "Atrophied" and especially "The Edge", there are moments where the technical guitars are met by an equally awesome chorus/bridge in the vocal department, and it is here the band should place some more focus. Whenever the vocalist variates from the same pace/pitch combination, "The Raven" actually comes across as an above average punk rock/melodicore record. It's a shame it only occurs a couple of times on the record, and elsewhere the band's sound drowns in a sea of similar-sounding tunes throughout.

Download: The Edge, Atrophied
For the fans of: A Wilhelm Scream, Adjusted, No Use For A Name
Listen: Myspace

Release date 13.06.2008
Self-Released

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