Album Review

Mutiny On The Bounty – Trials

• 5th Jul 2012

MOTB looks too much like MOTD (Match of the Day, for those that don’t follow the UK TV show about men kicking a leather ball about) so I’ve decided that the acronym that will be used in this review for Mutiny on the Bounty will from here on in be MOB.

So…

MOB are back with a new line-up and a new album, produced with the rather wonderful Matt Bayles (Isis/Fall of Troy/Mastodon) overseeing knob twiddling duties.

After the electro crescendo of ‘The Long Loud Silence’ MOB kick things off proper with ‘North Korea’. I was a tad worried as the main riff kicked in- had I been mistakenly sent a CD of Enter Shikari demo’s? Maybe the space-time continuum had broken down with the discovery of Higgs Boson? Or Had MOB decided to follow in the footsteps of St Albans favourite crossover munchkins and go all ‘nu-rave’ on us. Luckily my fears were calmed as following the ill-advised intro the wholly instrumental track developed into a seriously heavy post-rock jam with nods to Explosions in the Sky and Minus the Bear. NICE.

The vocals don’t kick in until track 3 with ‘Artifacts’. The varied vocal styles ranging from melodic punk ‘Hot Water Music’ esque sing alongs, through ‘At the Drive In’s’ anger filled screams and even some Muse style falsetto thrown in there for good measure. The guitar playing is inherently Minus the Bear – clean, tapping parts utilising loop pedals and repetitive phrasing. As effective as it is, it’s hard to escape the fact that if I didn’t know better I would say that the guitarist for MTB had upped and joined MOB (now things are starting to get complicated!). The rhythm section is tight and melodic and underpins the dueling guitars well.

This musical style continues through the record, drawing close comparisons to Battles/Foals et al and even slipping into Fall of Troy territory (though far less heavy). Now if you’re a fan of the aforementioned bands you might be getting quite excited by this point in the review. On paper it all sounds great. The problem is that in reality MOB for the most part play it very safe, there’s not a lot here that truly defines MOB as a band in their own right. In fact the strongest sections of the record are when the band break away from their tried and tested indie/punk song structures, and venture out into the more experimental ‘post-rock’ landscape with album closer ‘Mapping the Universe’ and the bass heavy ‘Shadow Figures’.

There’s a few stand out riff’s and hooks on this album (the fantastic intro riffery from ‘Shifting Paradigms’ and the incredible verse groove in ‘Myanmar’) however as a whole the album is quite forgettable. I really thought I was going to love this album after hearing the first couple of tracks; however it doesn’t manage to hold the attention span long enough and descends into repetition far too often. It’s frustrating when elements of this album are so great to have to give it a negative review. It’s worth a listen if you’re a big fan of this genre but I doubt you’ll still be listening to this come Christmas.

More focus on the textural ambiance and expansive post-rock twiddling next time please guys.