Leathermouth XO Review

"Catch Me If You Can" is our own modern day "Ace of Spades"!!! Lemmy, don't worry, these Jersey Boys do Motorhead proud. In fact LeATERHMOUTH should inspire pride in many a forefather to the current emo/screamo/post-hardcore world in which we live. As I listen to "XO" I find that I reminisce about some good ol' NYHC a la Cro-Mags or Agnostic Front or I'll find myself thinking about seeing Drive Like Jehu or Rocket From The Crypt (the early years) at The Casbah, not knowing at the time that I was witnessing the birth of screamo. In fact, lots of stuff floats through my head as "XO" progresses and maybe it's just plain that I didn't really expect too much. Let's face it, emo/screamo is becoming saturated. There, I said it! That's OK, it means that in order to stand out, that you need more than a look, more than a link to some other band of the genre and clearly that you can offer more than having the word "boy(s)" or "die" in your band name.

Maybe because the lead singer is the guitarist in My Chemical Romance, I passed judgement before I should have. I suspect I am not the only one to do that. MCR is great, but comparing these two bands is in fact unfair and distorts the truth.

The Bronx were supposed to be the next it thing a couple of years ago. Breaking barriers, pushing the envelope of post-hardcore and while their debut was impressive, in hindsight, it lacked some depth and complexity. Leathermouth does punk complexity well. Are they the next big thing, well, their record label hopes so, but if they turn out to be that, it will be for the reasons that this is one of the best scream records put out in a very long time!

It's a great rock record in that the guitar lines are memorable and loaded with hooks. The vocals are incredibly strong and migrate from Trent Reznor to Rick Froberg (work on it kids). It's angst ridden, it's smart, it's a record that with each listen, you hear something new. We all have those favorite records, right? Perhaps on first listen, you thought, hey there are some pretty good tracks on here. Then, each time another track opens up and you realize, in fact, every song is great and it makes you want to go back and here it again from beginning to end to uncover some new aspect. For me, the last time that happened was with "Career Suicide" by A Wilhelm Scream. It happens on "XO", in fact it's still happening.

It's by no means an epic album, it's rather short in fact...sorry, I'm talking about time, not song titles! Song titles, it reigns supreme with clever titles like "This Song is About Being Attacked by Monsters". But who cares about that stuff, to me, that's part of the packaging. What matters is the music and Leathermouth clearly inherit all sorts of influences from sludge rock, NWOBHM and hardcore. Inheritance is tricky thing, you can abuse it and treat it like you are entitled. Leathermouth embrace it and then make it their own. Well done Jersey Boys!

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