EP REVIEW: Mouth Of Ruin – Maridia
There is a a famous saying that states that distance makes the heart grow fonder. This is certainly the case for MARIDIA. The post-hardcore band from Sweden are based in Stockholm and Umeå, two cities which are eight hours apart by car. Whilst this means that they don’t perform much as a full band in person, it hasn’t stopped them from creating their debut EP Mouth Of Ruin. The band managed to get together as a full group in November 2021 for a whole week in order to record the EP after writing it and putting it together over the long distance between them.
The EP kicks off with Guts Of Mammon, which leans more into metalcore instead of post-hardcore. This is not a complaint because the band suit the style very well. Furthermore, the band have a variety of genres that they use in their music. The vocals in this song are more hardcore, whereas the instruments are more along the lines of metalcore, and the production means that the two sounds stylistically work very well together.
Furthermore, the genre of post-hardcore itself is quite varied due to its focus on creative expression. Therefore, whether it is the fast-paced hardcore of This Ember or the more melodic metal of Through Thorn And Bone, MARIDIA show that they have something for everyone on this EP. Crucially, none of this affects any of the pacing of the EP either, which could be because the genres are mostly under the umbrella term of hardcore, and therefore it all fits together.
On the other hand, it could be because of William Blackmon. He produced the EP when the band were recording it at The Overlook Studio in Gävle, Sweden, and his attention to detail means that the songs all fit together, and they do not disrupt the pacing of the overall EP.
That being said, the EP does run into the issue of repeating the same patterns. Whilst going down the post-hardcore route does mean that the band are given a lot of freedom, they do have the issue of sticking with a sound and running with it. Of course, as this is their debut release, it is still early days for them yet. However, the first few songs are larger-than-life rage-inducing ones, then the middle descends into melodic metal, while the sixth song, Drift / Drowse, tries to break up this pattern by becoming a distorted interlude with muffled screaming vocals. It’s nice to see the band try their hand at something different, but it does somewhat come across as too little too late because it comes after five songs which sound very similar to one another.
Overall though, Mouth Of Ruin is an excellent start to MARIDIA‘s career. Whilst it does unfortunately fall into the usual trappings of a debut release, it does make excellent use of the creative freedom that post-hardcore offers, even if the band do tend to take an idea and run with it a bit. On the other hand, the band are not afraid to experiment, as seen with the interlude song, and despite quite a few songs following the same trends, the production means that the pacing of the overall EP is not affected. MARIDIA have a very bright future ahead of them; they just need to focus in on their sound a little more, but this is a very impressive debut from a very exciting band.
Rating: 7/10
Mouth Of Ruin is set for release on May 19th via self-release.
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