To pinpoint a genre on Berlin’s War From A Harlots Mouth is a lot like trying to breathe underwater – fucking impossible and even attempting would be doing a disservice to you, as I discovered after my chat with guitarist Simon Hawmann. Part of the charm of WFAHM is the unpredictability, and rather than simply refusing to subscribing to any particular genre, they embrace many. This is what got the band to where it is today – packing their bags and heading down to Australia for The Soldiers Of Immortality tour with local legends Thy Art Is Murder.
There was a time where the music scene in Berlin was years ahead of ours, though as we know with globalization and this whole ‘internet’ thing, times have changed and music has taken on a more international theme. I asked Simon what the scene is now like in Berlin “It’s getting really hard at the moment, because we have a bunch of tours coming through all the time and so its getting harder to get the shows packed, id say that the hardcore and metalcore scene is pretty weak , and its kind of split up at the moment. You have the younger kids, and the old fashioned kids. The old school hardcore kids don’t really go to many shows any more because there aren’t as many shows for them” This is not what you’d expect at all from what is the perceived Mecca of metal. “…And the youngsters, they go to see only the big shows. Then we have the metal scene, there’s a big metal scene in Germany but it’s more of a traditional scene, there might be a good black and death metal scene but at the moment…I haven’t seen too many good shows around..Cannibal Corpse…maybe we can catch some in Australia!”
The bands most recent release MMX, thrown to the wolves back in 2010 caused a lot of people to double take WFAHM. The technically alone cause them to spread like a plague amongst the super fussy music fanatics, and the relentless pace, dark scales and a booming rough as guts growl is what attracted the rest of us. Bands have tried this style before but few managed to consolidate it to a professional (i.e not experimental) level, MMX does this. “[MMX] was received pretty well I think, it was a big step for us musically. People were picking up on it – it’s amazing to play the songs live, the kids go pretty nuts for the new songs. And Musically, I think it’s a step in the right direction where as the album before was a bit more experimental and you know, that wasn’t very well received – It was too hard to get into. MMX s more of a blueprint of our future sound – we found our niche I think” – said by Simon with a sense of pride, as I imagine anyone who was part of MMX would do.
As Simon mentioned, MMX was a step in another direction from previous releases such as their split CD with Burning Skies. Now with the dust settled from both, fans have engaged in a tug-of-war to determine where on the great spectrum of metal genres War From A Harlots Mouth lands, but what did the band think of people attempting to label their creation? “Theres obviously a lot of so called mathcore bands we like, a lot of the older stuff…lets say Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge and all that stuff – they were some of our influences, though from the other end these a lot of extreme metal. We also like to listen to some really experimental black metal. There’s actually a really interesting black metal scene in France. A tonne of great bands coming out of there, that has actually left a long lasting impression on me musically. It’s hard to explain, I guess what I would say is that its more like a mixture of mathcore, technical extreme metal and a bit of black metal” So there you have it kids, straight from the horses mouth.
The problem, however with producing such a technical album, and transcending so many genres at once is translating everything into a live show. Many bands will fail at this and once fans see that, not only will they not buy tickets, they wont buy albums, though as Simon explained War From A Harlots Mouth were very aware of this “When we recorded MMX we made sure we kept the live set in mind. We weren’t trying to write songs that would attract an audience, first priority was to make them playable, you know, barely more than two guitars at the same time. – You know those bands that record like 10,000 layers of guitar at once? Haha. Basically we wanted to be able to put these songs on stage and perform them live, so we’re always trying to find a golden path you know? A middle way to make them sound huge but also make them realistically playable – we always kept that in mind’.
The Soldiers Of Immortality tour will mark the first time War From A Harlots Mouth will be playing our stages. Having played many, many shows through Europe and the US, you’d think touring would be a bit…meh…for the band now, but as Simon would put it “Australia! Now that’s a big deal! None of us have ever been there. We are all mad excited. I’ve never been so excited to go somewhere, I mean, I was excited when I went to the States like 3 years ago, and I guess that was exciting but Australia is something else, I can’t wait to see the country, meet the people – I’m actually spending a couple of extra days in Sydney, and even spending Christmas there too! Oh man, the weather, and at the beach” It was now that I looked out the window at the depressing, horribly, shitty Sydney weather we’ve had lately. “Well don’t worry Simon my friend, the weather is always perfect here” I couldn’t burst that bubble.
The Soldiers Of Immortality Tour will be wreaking havoc in major cities this December. Don’t miss the carnage when it reaches your town.
Tickets on sale now
Thursday, 1 December 2011 – High School, Byron Bay AA – NEW VENUE
WITH: Deceiver
Tickets from Oztix on 1300 762 545, www.oztix.com.au and Oztix Outlets
Friday, 2 December 2011 – Shed 5, Gold Coast AA
WITH: Widow The Sea
Tickets from Oztix on 1300 762 545, www.oztix.com.au and Oztix Outlets
Saturday, 3 December 2011 – The Globe Theatre, Brisbane AA
WITH: Skyway, Milestones, Apart From This + more
Tickets from Oztix on 1300 762 545, www.oztix.com.au and Oztix Outlets
Sunday, 4 December 2011 – Bald Faced Stag, Sydney Lic/AA
WITH: Absolution
Tickets from Moshtix on 1300 438 849, www.moshtix.com.au and Moshtix Outlets
Wednesday, 7 December 2011 – The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle 18+
Tickets from Moshtix on 1300 438 849, www.moshtix.com.au and Moshtix Outlets
Thursday, 8 December 2011 – Unanderra Community Centre, Wollongong AA
WITH: Graves
Tickets from Moshtix on 1300 438 849, www.moshtix.com.au and Moshtix Outlets
Friday, 9 December 2011 – Uni Bar, Adelaide Lic/AA
WITH: Within My Hands
Tickets from Moshtix on 1300 438 849, www.moshtix.com.au and Moshtix Outlets
Saturday, 10 December 2011 – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne U18
WITH: Dream On Dreamer + Trainwreck
Tickets from Corner Box Office 11am-8pm Mon-Sat, 0394279198 or www.cornerhotel.com
Sunday, 11 December 2011 – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne +18
WITH: Dream On Dreamer + Electrik Dynamite
Tickets from Corner Box Office 11am-8pm Mon-Sat, 0394279198 or www.cornerhotel.com
Friday, 16 December 2011 – YMCA HQ, Leederville AA *
WITH: Sensory Amusia + Afraid Of Heights
Tickets from Moshtix on 1300 438 849, www.moshtix.com.au and Moshtix Outlets
Saturday, 17 December 2011 – Civic Backroom, Inglewood 18+ *
WITH: Northlane + Paradise In Exile
Tickets from Moshtix on 1300 438 849, www.moshtix.com.au and Moshtix Outlets
Sunday, 18 December 2011 – YMCA HQ, Leederville AA ** – NEW SHOW
WITH: Northlane, Anchored + It All Ends Here
Tickets from Moshtix on 1300 438 849, www.moshtix.com.au and Moshtix Outlets
* TAIM & MTS only
** TAIM only
