I remember all the hype that The Grand Descent, the debut of Massachusett’s own Fuming Mouth got.  I also remember feeling like that album absolutely lived up to the hype.  I was immediately taken by the brutal mix of death metal and crusty hardcore, and even though it’s not exactly a brand new concoction, I felt like there was something intangibly charming about the release, especially for a debut.  And then, as the music scene gets harder and harder to keep up with, I realized that I hadn’t heard anything from or about Fuming Mouth in a while.  Last Day of Sun, the long-awaited follow-up, explains itself and the absence of the band.

Last Day of Sun is an album that is inherently, inextricably tied to death, through every fiber of its being.  It was originally set out to be a full concept album, telling the story of a city that is on the brink of extinction, as they realize the sun will burn itself out in 24 hours.  Each track on the album is set during a different hour in that time period, spanning the entire range of the stages of grief.  Or at least, that was how it started.  Three weeks before recording was supposed to begin, frontman Mark Whelan was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.  His cancer diagnosis almost immediately shifted the focus of the album onto his personal feelings of death, despair, and ultimately, resilience.  Thankfully, Whelan is in good health and good spirits, but the looming specter of death and the very personal brush with the inevitable end ends up splitting the album into a part concept album and part autobiography hybrid.  Production was helmed by the esteemed Kurt Ballou at his God City Studio in Salem, Massachusetts, and even this setting helped cement the theme of death into Last Day of Sun.  Recorded in October 2022, Halloween season had just started in a city that is already on the spooky season spectrum, so the vibes were, as they say, immaculate for crafting a doomsday opus.  And if that wasn’t enough, the band went back to acclaimed artist Mariusz Lewandowski for another cover, but he tragically passed away in the middle of working on it.  The final cover, completed by Stefan Todorovic, is a tribute to Lewandowski, a representation of the story of the album, and a nod to Whelan’s personal struggle with his own black winged demon.

As you can imagine, Last Day of Sun is a very angry and aggressive album.  It picks up right where Fuming Mouth left off, with a particularly vicious blend of hardcore and death metal.  Opening track “Out of Time” sets the stage conceptually as well as sonically, with a gigantic, crushing riff giving way to d-beat crust and a wicked guitar solo.  Most of the opening tracks follow the same pattern, until you get to the one-two punch of “Leaving Euphoria” and “I’ll Find You,” and then it’s almost like I’m listening to a completely different band.  I mean this in a good way, of course, but the injection of so much genuinely heartfelt emotion is a little startling when you first hear it.  Even the chorus of lead single “The Silence Beyond Life” sees Whelan and Fuming Mouth inject more straightforward, dare I say mainstream, moments into their music, like the aforementioned single’s insanely catchy chorus and the saccharine melodies on “I’ll Find You.”  That’s not to say this isn’t a heavy release; it’s just a lot more varied, and quite honestly, that’s what makes it a lot more memorable of an album than The Grand Descent, which while excellent, didn’t leave me humming along long after the album was over.  

Last Day of Sun is an album that almost didn’t happen, that shouldn’t have come together if all things are considered.  But that’s the funny thing about almost dying: sometimes, just sometimes, it makes you infinitely more resolute than you were before.  This is an album that spits defiantly in the face of fate and stands on its own in the shadow of death.  It’s gonna be hard for Fuming Mouth to top something that is this inspired, but hopefully they don’t have to suffer any more slings and arrows in order to do so.

—-Ian

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Last Day of Sun is available now on Nuclear Blast Records.  For more information on Fuming Mouth, visit their official website.