Mouth of the Architect

Mouth of the Architect's MySpace page irreverently claims the band's home town is the fictional Hell, Ohio. If you've ever visited the Buckeye state, you know that "hell" is a pretty good description of the place. The land of tortured artists (Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys, convicted murderer/country star David Allen Coe and Tool/A Perfect Circle's hyper-sensitive frontman Maynard James Keenan all hail from there), Ohio is a Midwestern dreamland of rolling green hills dotted with black-smokestack industry decadence. Oh, Ohio, the dark underbelly of middle America, where sad bastards relieve tension through rock music. Mouth of the Architect has the misfortune (or fortune?) of an Ohio background, and the small-town oppression is evident as the five-piece crescendos magnificently through tempered and atmospheric sludge metal. The Ties That Blind, the act's latest effort, plays like a hardcore 45 set to 33 rpm, with shouted dual vocals that recall Through Silver in Blood-era Neurosis. Hell's probably a crappy place to live, but at least the music is good.