The worlds of hardcore and metal are very well acclimated to diving deep into the concept of our finite mortality through their music, but few have actually had mortality come to test those limits firsthand. In 2021, Fuming Mouth frontman Mark Whelan was diagnosed with leukemia following the breakthrough of the central Massachusetts heavy hardcore band’s debut album, 2019’s The Grand Descent, and its subsequent 2020 extended play, Beyond the Tomb, so saying their follow-up — with Whelan thankfully now being in remission — was created in an intensely different light would be a massive understatement. With that, “The Silence Beyond Life”, the lead single from Fuming Mouth’s sophomore effort, Last Day of Sun, is a triumph over death in spite of the impending void it creates. The listen engages the familiar guttural exorcism that reached from the bowels of Hell of their previous work, but then there’s a melodic, clean-voice chorus that sounds heroic in the face of what could have ended everything. “I should have died when I had the chance to leave all off this behind / I thought I died / Fading into the light with the silence beyond life.” Staring death in the eyes, Fuming Mouth roar back from the grave as a different kind of humanly beast.

Fuming Mouth’s Last Day of Sun will be released November 3rd on Nuclear Blast.