Twitching Tongues - Gaining Purpose Through Passionate Hatred

Cut from the same hardcore cloth as Code Orange, albeit on a distant end of that cloth, Twitching Tongues have been slowly building a reputation for themselves among metalcore’s more violent renaissance. On their third full-length outing, the Twitching Tongues that seemed to be figuring out the hardcore sound they wanted to pursue with more focus, as they did on Disharmony after its rather spotty and confused predecessor, seems to once again sound unsure of what they’re going for in their sludgy, doom-y take on metalcore and hardcore. With a mish mash of more straightforward hardcore songs accented well with some brutish melodic vocals and unconfident sludge tunes with awkward usage of the acoustic guitar, Twitching Tongues sound unsure of what they want to do far too frequently on the album.

While the introductory track starts with a dark and spooky acoustic introduction that leads into a sick sludgy metalcore tune that makes good use of vocal and guitar melodies, “Kill for You” features an uncertain attempts at a moody, acoustic intro, and ends up being confused atmospheric sludge/hardcore mush. “Harakiri” also makes for a less imaginative mid-quick-tempo hardcore track banking on a vocal melody and a breakdown that don’t come through with sufficient returns. “The Sound of Pain” is a to-the-point metalcore/groove metal track that hits hard during its breakdown, and “T.F.R.” is a much more straightforward hardcore track with a bit of a southern groove near its end that actually ends up being pretty tasty.

“Forgive and Remember” is a strange imitation of the style of bands like Pallbearer, Sleep, and Elder: Twitching Tongues capture it, but not with much character, or without degrading into faster punk-esque beats that make no sense with the doom metal surrounding it. “Gaining Purpose” picks up the tempo with some fuller, but still not all too aggressive or inventive sludge.

The piano-led intro and the impassioned vocal melody sung through the whole of “Long Gone” I could see have been more fitting and better accomplished by another band, but ultimately it’s a pretty moving ballad from a band I didn’t expect this kind of ballad from, and I’m okay with its perhaps shoehorned placement onto this album.

As for the album’s closer, it reaches for the grandiose with a “Twitching fucking Tongues” line and a strings/piano bridge, but everything is so sloppily thrown together, it makes no sense structurally, and none of the individual parts are truly gripping enough to justify it as a closer: it’s just long.

Mostly, I just think Twitching Tongues just took a step backward on this one. They tried to step into too many different shoes that they just don’t seem able to as a band as they are currently. And I don’t begrudge a band wanting to do multiple things; I’m not the kind to say “stick to one thing.” But Twitching Tongues don’t really show the capacity to do so, and their compositional chops definitely could use some improvement if they’d like to be able to sound confident in multiple genres. I wish the guys all the best, I just think it’s a long road ahead for them, with a lot of work to be done.