Fuming Mouth The Ringing Bell Review
Fuming Mouth
The Ringing Bell
Triple B Records
2026
The press for Fuming Mouth begins thusly in regard to their latest album The Ringing Bell.
“Idiom ("Ring a Bell"): Refers to a vague recollection. The phrase implies that a mention acts like the striking of a bell, summoning a faint memory from the back of your mind.
Medical/Personal Milestone: In many cancer treatment centers, a patient physically rings a wall-mounted brass bell on their final day of chemotherapy or radiation to signify the end of a difficult journey and a return to normal life.
Historical & Religious Signaling: For centuries, ringing bells have been used to draw attention to important events—such as the consecration during a Catholic Mass, the start of a school day, the arrival of a ship, or a warning of impending danger.
Full-Length Album: The new album from the uncontested masters of underground metal...the American juggernaut known as FUMING MOUTH.” I include that not only because it's beautifully descriptive, but also because I'm not gonna introduce you to this 11-song bruiser any better.
Fuming Mouth began in Massachusetts in 2013 when guitarist/vocalist Mark Whelan decided to give a go at the music that he was being exposed to in the hardcore scene. We aren't talking Chicago, NYHC, DC, or any of the nationally renowned bands. Oh no, this was darker, heavier, more acerbic, metallic-tinged stuff like Trap Them, NAILS, etc. A demo followed, a rhythm section was added, and Fuming Mouth were let loose upon New England, and later the world, with the debut LP The Grand Descent. 2020 and the pandemic gave us the much more mature Beyond the Tomb EP. Whelan was then diagnosed with, battled, and BEAT cancer before recording 2022's Last Day of Sun, marking their first worldwide release as well as one of the most triumphant returns to hardcore laced, graven death metal.
Now we find the band (completed by former Slipknot drummer Jay Weinberg and bassist Chris Berg) unleashing the 11 songs of The Ringing Bell from their long-time label partners, Triple B Records. Man, where to begin? For starters, this is gut-wrenchingly Swedish HM-2 buzzsaw guitar-led death metal behind hardcore breakdowns/chugs, vitriolic shouted/low gutturals, somber melodic doom sections, sparse clean vocals, and lots of raw feedback and sheer anger at the helm.
The production is not full-on low-fi, but it is purposefully rough-edged, reverberated, and very "live" sounding. This is due in part to it being recorded by Kurt Ballou at the infamous GodCity Studio in Salem, Massachusetts. Every instrument and vocal cuts through, but as I mentioned, has that fucking NASTY grime and slime guitar sound anchoring everything, making it heavier than a 10,000 lb. anvil. The band blasts, thrashes, churns, and drones through every cut here in just over 33 minutes, and I am confident in saying that while they aren't breaking new ground, they do this style of hardcore meets crusty punk by way of sludgy, aggressive, doomed-out death metal better than most of their contemporaries. I was unfamiliar with Fuming Mouth before this review, but this record has gotten repeated listens since it was assigned to me.
Standout tracks are (but not limited to) "Cheat Death," "Self-Exhumed," "Hidden in the Moor," and the title track, "The Ringing Bell." It's what Fuming Mouth employs here in these that makes them stand out and puts a whole new flavor into the recipe of bands of this ilk. I am an unabashed new fan of them after hearing this collection of songs. Often hardcore is about overcoming adversity, and Fuming Mouth has sure had their fair share of it in recent years. By the same token, it's angry sonically, just like the death metal influences they embrace. This is take-no-prisoners brutality that is the audio equivalent of "Take your best shot, motherfucker." Fuming Mouth ain't going anywhere, they're pissed off, and they're gonna tell you about it…
RIYL - Entombed, Dismember, Trap Them, Creeping Death, Tomb Mold, Gatecreeper, Full of Hell
~TB