Photo by Errick Easterday
Watch MOUTH FOR WAR’s “Captivated” video HERE.
Brutal metalcore practitioners MOUTH FOR WAR are pleased to unleash their new video for “Captivated” from their forthcoming new full-length Bleed Yourself. Now playing at Decibel Magazine, the premiere comes on the eve of the record’s official release this Friday, October 27th, via MNRK Heavy.
Catharsis builds community. As if conducting group scream therapy, MOUTH FOR WAR incites a collective release of emotion set to a soundtrack of metal intensity, pit-splitting hardcore spirit, and earth-rumbling grooves. The Colorado quintet — vocalist Trae Roberts, drummer Mason Sego, guitarists Gabe Moya and Jonah Starbuck, and bassist Michael Guglielmi — rallies listeners together around unflinchingly honest and uncontainable bursts of aggression and emotion. After earning praise from Outburn, No Echo, and many more, they hold nothing back on Bleed Yourself, their second proper full-length and MNRK Heavy label debut.
A compelling video featuring animation by Torey Kervick and artwork by Caleb Butcher, “Captivated” stands as a pulverizing album centerpiece. Elaborates Roberts, “‘Captivated’ is a song with a strange lyrical theme in a style I’ve never really written before, so we knew this would be the perfect track to bring our friends Caleb and Torey in to make a crazy visual for. I wrote this track about a mushroom trip where I felt like for the first time I was visited by my late sister’s spirit, oddly enough through the eyes of my cat Adelaide. I love how this video came out and we’re so excited to share it with you.”
Watch MOUTH FOR WAR’s video for “Captivated,” alongside an interview, at Decibel HERE.
Watch MOUTH FOR WAR’s previously released video for “Saturate Me” HERE and “Under The Gun” HERE.
Bleed Yourself will be released on CD, LP, cassette, and digital formats. Find preorders at THIS LOCATION.
During 2019, MOUTH FOR WAR united members of underground favorites Bruise, Remain, and Sustain. Following the An Ear Kept To The Ground EP, the group unleashed Life Cast In Glass in 2021, earning widespread acclaim. Along the way, they carefully struck an elusive balance of modern and classic heavy music, nodding to Lamb Of God, The Devil Wears Prada, and Meshuggah as well as Pantera (hence their band name) and Metallica.
In early 2023, the band decamped to Chicago to record with producer Pete Grossmann at BrickTop Recording. Ultimately, the setting and circumstances enabled the musicians to hyper focus. “The weather was insane in Chicago, so we didn’t really leave the studio,” recalls Roberts. “However, we were able to get more in tune with each other, have fun, and make memories around this record. We built a unified piece together.”
Opener “Roses In The Place of Your Ashes” kicks open the door with the force of a battering ram, setting the tone for the onslaught to follow. “It’s in your face and it just sounds vicious,” Roberts smiles. “It comes at you nonstop.” “Under The Gun” is another scorcher where Roberts’ guttural vocals growl just as deeply as the distortion while an airtight melodic riff cuts through pummeling drums only to recoil into a chugging stomp. “Saturate Me” hinges on the ominous warbling of a country-style prayer until the momentum blasphemously turns on a dime with a blast of bludgeoning percussion and incendiary riffing. Uplifted by an unexpected fit of melody, its unpredictability proves undeniable. The beating concludes on the title track “Bleed Yourself” where the group unlocks one final exorcism anchored by guillotine-sharp guitars and gut-punching roars.
“To me, it’s literally about bleeding your emotions and trying to let everything out all at once,” Roberts concludes. “That’s essentially what I did on this record—from the first song to the last. I touched on subjects I thought I was done with. It almost hurt again, but I bled myself out as much as possible.” In the end, MOUTH FOR WAR will give you the space to scream with them.
“…a hulking slab of relentless metalcore that’s laced with a few whirring death-metal leads, some gnarly deathcore breakdown patterns. and all the raw grit of a true-blue metallic hardcore band like Knocked Loose or Jesus Piece. This is music that’s so heavy it makes your arms sore to listen to it.” – Revolver
“…the track jams face contorting breakdowns, brutal rhythms, and insanely pissed vocals right up the listener’s ass.” — MetalSucks on “Saturate Me”
“Maybe they’re just meaner or angrier or simply better than some of the others, but whatever it is it just works and it means that Bleed Yourself has everything it needs to hold its own even in a scene as crowded with quality as that of modern metallic hardcore.” — Distorted Sound
“This album has just about everything you could want out of a record of this nature, showcasing violent riffage, devastating breakdowns, cacophonous drum work, and beautifully written lyricism… if you listen to heavy music and album isn’t sky high on your end of year lists, you’re listening to music incorrectly.” — the Soundboard
“It has just the right balance of emotional vulnerability and punishing aggression and should be wrecking venues across the globe before you know it.” — The Razors Edge Rocks
“…a contender for the heaviest album of the year, purely because it is so non-stop when it comes to unrestrained brutality.” — Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life
“Bleed Yourself is a testament to expertly done heavy music… MOUTH FOR WAR are a metalcore band through and through, and Bleed Yourself is not just a metalcore record, but perhaps THE metalcore record of 2023.” – New Transcendence
Trae Roberts – vocals
Mason Sego – drums
Gabe Moya – guitar
Jonah Starbuck – guitar
Michael Guglielmi – bass
https://www.facebook.com/mouthforwarco
https://www.instagram.com/mouthforwarco
https://twitter.com/mouthforwarco
https://www.mnrkheavy.com
https://www.facebook.com/MNRKHeavy
https://www.instagram.com/MNRK_heavy
https://www.twitter.com/MNRKHeavy