Indubitably, Mouth of the Architect is not as gripping as the former two in my above statement, probably due in great part to MOTA’s unequivocal aping of Isis. Quietly, and for that matter any other post-rock release, is liable to come under great scrutiny for sounding remotely like Oceanic or Panopticon because the genre hasn’t quite hit the “we’ve done everything this genre has to offer” mark (give it about twenty years; we’ll have ‘proto-post-rock’ by then, just you wait and see). We’ve all heard the argument before: “well, this is good, but THOSE GUYS are great.” Well, “THOSE GUYS” happen to be Isis in this case, for better or worse.

MOTA’s a little deceiving early on, what with light, melodic guitars and keyboards, only to follow with blunt force sludge bass and drums. It’s like a pretty girl (or boy, whatever tickles your fancy) seduces you their way with a wave of the finger, and once you get there, they sock you in the mouth with equal amounts brevity and bitterness. Such is the case for most of the songs, save “A Beautiful Corpse,” which waylays the niceties for the meat-and-potatoes ball-busting sludge, and a couple of interludes sans testicles entirely, though “Pine Boxes” actually makes for one of Quietly‘s most touching moments, rather than one of its most denigrating. When vocals are present, they reverberate through your stomach for a moment; this is especially true of Julie Christmas’ guest appearance on “Generation of Ghosts,” acting as something of a good cop/bad cop vocal approach to Jason Watkins’ mighty roar.

I’m still not sure what “post-rock” is, but Quietly was good enough to keep my attention with nary a blast-beat in sight, and that’s saying something.