Disclaimer: If you’re expecting any sort of normality, this is not where you want to be. You’ve been warned…
In Love Your Mother is a self-proclaimed Mathcore / Mothercore / Chaoscore / Dadacore band bringing the strange from their home of Zürich, Switzerland. They’re giving their all into becoming madness incarnate and, so far, it would appear that they’re succeeding in this. They’ve been operating for a number of years now, launching a total of 2 albums and an EP since beginning their operation in 2009.
Now, they’re preparing for the release of an all new, third album with the title “The Greatest Hits”. They have a running joke at live shows that they’re about to play another hit because their songs would clearly scare the bejesus out of the average radio listener… or just about any listener for that matter. They’re currently pushing a crowdfunding campaign with a number of incentives to help release the new record so, if you want a little slice of madness in your life, you know what to do! Fans can help the cause by CLICKING HERE to buy the record and extra goodies.
The group only consists of 3 members but they provide more than enough noise to go around. They are Valentin Baumgartner providing vocals and guitar work up front, Amedeo Mauriello delivering bass and vocals up front as well, and finally Andrea Tinner bashing up odd times behind the kit. Together, they craft the music that your mother warned you about…
In Love Your Mother took an unorthodox approach while making “The Greatest Hits” a reality. This album was recorded entirely on analog tape with no edits or overdubs. This is a pure, raw, recording pushing the boundaries of your sanity. It’s not often we see this approach in the sterile, highly produced landscape of modern metal music – especially from the more technical end of things. There’s simply a master to boost levels to some merciless headache levels but it’s completely untouched beyond that. In a way, it’s hard not to respect the huevos that go into taking this approach. But how do they fare when it’s all said and done?
That really depends on who’s listening. And, to be perfectly honest, many of those listening may be taken aback. Take everything you expect from a conventional album and throw it out the damn window. This is a chaotic shitshow of a record just waiting to scare your neighbors away. It might just scare you away as well. Seriously, this album is akin to a mental breakdown on a number of levels. It’s a completely unhinged experience that ranges from some genuinely interesting moments to the sonically unbearable. Tread lightly.
While listening, it’s not hard to reach a point of wondering if this band even meant for this record to be taken seriously. Hints from the aforementioned title itself “The Greatest Hits” to the absolutely ridiculous music video / track “The Painter” would make one think otherwise. However, there seems to be an underlying theme of performance art to everything this band does as they mesh the obscene with the creative. Also, some of the tracks are actually quite nice and interesting where others are jarring or seemingly unenjoyable. It seems they were trying to make a statement of anarchy with this record. Anarchy for the ears, that is.
On the total flipside, I have to say the first material I heard from this band, off the album “Dada For Your Mada”, was much more enjoyable in a number of ways. It had a nice sort of Dillinger-esque controlled chaos that has been completely unchained with this new LP. It was a more pre-meditated, sharper, and just more cleanly executed effort all around. Honestly, part of me kind of hates “The Greatest Hits” for this stark contrast but I can’t write it off completely. There are parts I have to admire. The band clearly has some talent and they clearly want to get under the skin of the listener. As I’ve seen from many comments and from my own experience, it works. Furthermore, I believe the band is happy that it works.
Almost every track seems to begin and end with serrated waves of feedback. This is evident from the very start with “She” which consists of over a minute of wailing and screeching before the band finally launches into a dissonant diddy. Things are thrown further into an interesting direction when track #2 strikes. “A2 9.3 Monsieur Le Bar” brings things closer to a Mathcore approach with large grooves and unpredictable sonic attacks. There’s immediately some contrast happening here.
In a way, these first two tracks work as a pretty good representative for a largely unpredictable record. That’s because things seems to strafe back and forth between perceived nonsense and some genuinely interesting moments. This is a cycle that repeats, once again unpredictably, as the album pushes from start to finish.
Speaking of the finish, the closest thing to a normal moment on this LP comes at the very end as things calm to melancholy on the track “B4 Chase”. It could actually be considered hauntingly beautiful in some ways, like entering the eye of a hurricane just as the storm breaks for good and the wind decides to put your house down. That being said, this ender serves as a nice palette cleanser following the toss and turn the rest of the album throws listeners through.
When it’s all said and done, I don’t really know how to properly rate this album because it’s somewhere off the scale. So there you have it. In Love Your Mother’s “The Greatest Hits” gets a solid ? out of 10 or some such thing. In a way, I would not be surprised if that’s exactly what the band wanted as they toss aside all modern music, metal, hardcore, mathcore, (you name it) conventions with this project. I’ll try to find a way to represent this in the rating below.
Once again, the band is currently crowdfunding the release of this effort. If you wish to support that cause, you may do so by CLICKING HERE. There are a number of benefits for supporting fans. I suggest opening up Google Translate to more closely understand these es sei denn, Sie sprechen die Muttersprache.
If you wish to follow along with the band directly, there are quite a number of ways to make that happen. You can check them out on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (I especially recommend this one because of all the odds and ends. It will help you better understand this band… by a fraction at least), and Bandcamp. They also have a nice website that you can scope out by CLICKING HERE.
Also! Remember that Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 13th. Go out and do something nice for the woman that dragged you out of her hoo-hah kicking and screaming.
Links: Facebook // Official Website // Official Store // YouTube // Crowdfunding
