Review Badmouth - T - Part Three of H.A.T.E. 2011

Bad mouth, is it due to poor dental hygiene or is it down to improper use of foul language perhaps, maybe excessive use of the latter. Whichever it is it is open to debate and no one seems to know. But if it is the former I can recommend the Pespodent Plutonium Plus (or PPP as it is commonly known) toothpaste which uses the power of gamma radiation to rid you of the bacteria in the mouth and it makes your teeth shine. But I guess that is enough information from sponsors now, lets move on to the EP called T which is part of the quadrology called H.A.T.E. which in turn is a mirror of another similar quadrology called L.O.V.E. which of course makes this the equivalent of V. The other series is made by Sofia Talvik and she is not that much of a rocker in her music one might say. I would also say that the bands having covered her songs earlier has been a little bit substandard, the covers have not been anywhere near as good as the originals and not particularly interesting at all. It also looks as though Badmouth has been given the ugliest cover art of the decade but that might be counterweighted because of their more vast experience in comparison with the other rockers who have covered Sofia’s songs, Badmouth has two albums with them. One of these albums is from this year but their promotional people didn’t think we deserved one of those albums so I have only heard the tracks they had as videos and those were not very good. But maybe with a skilled song writer like Sofia they might be able to do something more interesting, it will be hard to fail with such material to work from.

Musically we are treated to straightforward classic heavy metal, no fuzzing about here. The band has decided to really make the songs their own which they succeed quite well with in the regard that the only thing you really know from the originals is the words and most of the melody. The also play the song in a very high pace making the EP almost a minute shorter than Sofia’s version and that is with solos and other metal gibberish added. The production is typical heavy metal, nothing fancy and nothing surprising just heavy metal production and sound.

I have to say that I think these foul mouthed guys have succeeded much better than their predecessors in the hateful quadrology, this EP is really good which I cannot really say of any of the prior two, Ball of Mayhem was alright, slightly good at times but far from what Badmouth does. I think they have managed to take the essence from the songs and make it into their own songs, which is good. Sure I do not think they are as good as the original songs but the do sound good and like very cool new versions of Sofia’s songs which I think is what it is all about, giving a new, different life to these four songs and in that I think Badmouth has been much more successful than any of the other Sofia copies that we have been treated to. The letdown is that they make the songs sound a bit too alike and that the singer isn’t that impressive but otherwise I think they do it well.

In an interview at Sofia Talvik’s site the bassist Chris LeMon states that he thinks Jonestown and perhaps also To Watch the Bridges Burn are the best two songs of theirs on this EP and I am inclined to agree with his assessment as I think the same. They succeed particularly well with Jonestown which is a great song, the only problem is the original which is just better, but it is a great song in their version nonetheless. I also think they could try and make To Watch the Bridges Burn into a single so that it can be played on the radio as I believe it could give them some airtime as it feels like a great song for the radio.

But to round it all off I would say that this version by Badmouth might not be as good as Sofia Talvik’s original version but it is still a very good little EP. I am certain that if you like melodic heavy metal you will enjoy this, I think it is good and it is the best of the cover versions so far, even if I hope to see a progressive rock/metal band do the last part.

HHHHHHH

Badmouth T - Part Three of H.A.T.E.

Badmouth
T - Part Three of H.A.T.E.