Mothercare
Breathing Instructions

THE REVIEW

"Breathing Instructions": instructions for breathing, to avoid suffocating in everyday life.
This is the intent of the Veneto-based Mothercare, a band that has always worked its ass off to make its voice heard but has never managed to get the attention it deserved, despite having been around since '93 and only after ten years (!) managed to see their debut published.

"Pain-core" is how the band defines their music and, despite those who can't stand the more elaborate or vague ways to try to label a genre, I too couldn't define their proposition differently, which warmly welcomes influences from the most diverse in the realm of the most nihilistic and paranoid metal; it ranges from the crazy rhythms of early Slipknot to the darker and oppressive Korn-like atmospheres, from the most extremist grind of Napalm Death to the pumped and granitic riffs of Hatebreed, up to Sepultura's "Roots" and Machine Head's unsurpassable "Burn My Eyes".
All elements are expertly collected and dosed with surgical precision to form a sound of personal conception where the fury of grind mixes with the darkness of the most psychotic and alienated nu-metal, to create a work of total disillusionment, 11 tracks that seem to be an angry cry of pain to the world and a response to the need to exorcise one's inner negativity, where the four seem to vomit their soul onto the instruments.

A concrete example is "Lessness", splendid in its entirety, where the crescendo of suffocated pain ends up being accompanied by the Italian of Gonzales's throat in a dense sound, rich in edgy sensations, confessions, and regrets ("Io da solo ho provato, io da solo ho fallito, sono condannato a vivere nella pece...").
The blind and anguished fury of tracks like the opener "Copy/Paste" (with the spectacular participation of Mak 'Barney' Greenway from Napalm Death, and tell me if this isn't a guarantee) or "Chissoku", like the underlying irony that transpires in the use of Japanese in "Senbyoshi" or in the schizophrenic "Mugon" are expressions of an extraordinary personality that can't be ignored by those who persistently snub the Italian underground with the usual belief that our local bands 'have nothing to say'.
The Italian scene is alive and kicking but unfortunately, there's no one supporting it as it deserves, that's the truth.

An album to be played to those who believe Italy is just pizza, sun, and mandolins.