QUIETLY

This band is a Five piece post metal band who draw very heavy influences from bands like Cult of Luna for their music, and the God Fathers of Post Metal themselves Neurosis through their lyrics, and dark vibes. What separates MotA from these bands is their excellent use of keyboards in all of their songs. Unlike Cult of Luna, Isis, or *shels, who use (or underuse) their keyboardists exclusively for atmospherics, you can often hear this guy either in the forefront, or background of all the music, with his electric piano playing arpeggios that fit perfectly with the delayed electric guitars bouncing back and forth.

I'll admit, I didn't listen to the Ties that blind very often to get a solid opinion, and I'm trying to remedy that problem as fast as I can, but I can make some comparisons. Quietly is much darker, and mellowed out, concentrating more on brooding chords, and emphasis on the lyrics, and delayed lead lines, while their previous album is more about riffing your face off, and incorporating more clean guitars for a more Post Rocky effect. For some reason, The Ties... just didn't grab me as much as Quietly, and I wont deny that the latter is much more accessible, and the former is still incredibly kick ass.

Quietly does approach Post Rock as much as metal though, but through a different aesthetic. Instead of pulling the very Cult of Luna-ish shtick of throwing in some delayed ambiance in their songs, Mouth of the architect concentrate on the loud soft theory through completely toning down to simple keyboards, or samples as filler songs, so after you've had your three minutes of softness in Medicine, and you're slipping into a doze, The beautiful Corpse kicks you in the teethe with it's bone crushing distortion, and pissed off vocals. Also shying away from their sludge and doom tendencies, MotA have almost completely dropped riffing, and are now concentrating on atmosphere and emphasis on the vocals and lyrics of Jason Watkins. The subject matter is a little typical, surrounded by darkness, and other things like suicide, the fall of civilization, and death.

A wonderful album, definitely in my top five of the year, but I still think they are too derivative of their Cult of Neurosican influences to really call this one a masterpiece. So this album will get a four star rating from me.