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LeATHERMØUTH - XØ

Hardcore is a lot like the mob; it may have found its roots in New York City, but it moved to Jersey to keep the business alive. They diverge in the fact that the mob got soft, while hardcore bands kept getting harder and more calloused until they had skin like leather. Make no mistake, kids from the suburbs are even more pissed off than the kids in metropolitan areas. They live in cultural wastelands where the future is grim and the present is a joke.

LeATHERMØUTH formed in 2007 and soon came to the notice of My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero. Iero talked to the band about signing to his personal label, but then the band fired their original vocalist for not writing any lyrics and invited Iero to join the band. Fearing that he wouldn't be able to properly promote the band from the inside Frank decided to sign the band to Epitaph records. Epitaph has been a bastion for Hardcore for years, and the band were praised by Brett Gurewitz for the "intensity of their songwriting and music."

Make no mistake, LeATHERMØUTH sound nothing like Iero's other band. They are raw, abrasive, and emotional. The songs are about broken childhood, and deteriorating mental health. While the music itself owes as much to Minor Threat as it owes to contemporaries in the Hardcore scene, it is still on point, and precisely executed. Absent are the Queen-like harmonics, and the modern emo caterwauling of Iero's bill-paying gig. XØ marks the first time that Frank has penned the lyrics and contributed primary vocals for a band.

Side-projects have become all the rage in the past decade for good reason; musicians need more than one outlet. Good artists are multi-faceted. One could argue that it's all rock music, but they serve different purposes. The girl in you sixth period English class that really liked "Helena" just isn't going to get these songs. She'll hear the first bar of the first song and bitch about how it is just noise. Which is fine, this music isn't for her. This is music for the disaffected. This is music made for catharsis.

I would liken XØ to United Nations' Self-Titled debut album in both intensity, style, and brevity. They are two of the best hardcore albums that I have heard in the past few years. It is sad to see such potent music relegated to the sidelines of the scene, but I suppose that is where it always lived. It would be nice to see these things rewarded by being the primary focus of their creators, but maybe that would reduce the impact.

8.8/10