Music

HIGH FIVES: War from a Harlot’s Mouth

by Sam Sutherland

Every week, High Fives asks five bands five themed questions over five days. This week, we’re ruminating on the DVD release of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World with questions about music in film.

Being a technically mind-blowing metalcore band from Berlin that combines math metal with jazz doesn’t necessarily translate into worldwide album sales, but German bangers War from a Harlot’s Mouth have been steadily gaining momentum in the extreme underground since their formation in 2005. An unsteady lineup plagued the band’s first few years, but by 2007, they were crossing Europe with bands like Dying Fetus, Ion Dissonannce, and Cattle Decapitation. Today, they are considered one of the top acts in the genre (whether you want to call that genre “tech-deathcore” or something else equally confusingly specific), and with the release of MMX this week on German metal mainstay Lifeforce Records, they are only looking to continue their accession to extreme metal supremacy.

Have you seen Juno, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Youth in Revolt, Scott Pilgrim or any other recent movie that (often painfully) references independent music culture? How do they make you feel?

I saw Juno a while ago and really liked it. I remember the scene that referred to independent music culture and it reminded me how it’s just mostly lost nowadays. Even the most extreme types of music chum up to mainstream and pop culture nowadays, and that clearly leads to a loss of identification with these types of music and their subcultures. I used to go to shows all the time some years ago, but it’s just not really pleasing anymore. There is a new hype and therefore a whole new “scene” every quarter-year and it’s just annoying and sad. I miss the dedication in alternative and independent music to a certain degree. It’s cool that it’s more accessible to people nowadays, but it lost too much of its meaning.

What’s your favourite music-movie ever?

I have to name Walk the Line, because I’m a Johnny Cash fan, and Ray with Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles. Good movies, great music.

If you could appear as a band in the background any film, what film would you want to be in?

Definitely a David Lynch movie, that’s a no-brainer. I love the creepy vibe of his movies and I can see us fitting in there. We’re huge X-Files fans as well, there are songs about the characters of that TV show on all our full length releases. We’ve been through Mulder, Scully and C.G.B. Spender (a.k.a. Cancer Man).

Have you ever licensed your music to a movie, television show, or video game? Ever turned down a licensing offer?

Unfortunately not.

Does Lee Ving appearing in the film adaptation of Clue make Fear cooler, or less cool?

I gotta be honest with you… I have no idea. I know who Lee Ving and Fear is, but I don’t have any relationship to that.