Album Spotlight: Only Living Witness - Prone Mortal Form

By Ryan Germ

Tis the season for spinkicks and dark riffs am I right? Today I’m gonna give a long winded album spotlight on one of the most underrated hardcore records. Prone Mortal Form by Only Living Witness, and yes the reason I decided to kick off our December with this album is because of the closing track. Deal with it.

The record kicks off with quite possibly one of my favorite riffs  in the title track. It’s dirty, fuzzy, and heavy. But also melodic which only gets pushed further by frontman Jonah Jenkins vocals. The riff mostly stays the same throughout the song but it’s played in slightly different variations. It follows a pretty basic verse chorus verse chorus format but this record proves sometimes you don’t need all this fancy writing shit in your lyrics. Just expert instrumentals.

The next song, Root sounds a bit more classic than the title track. The main riff is a nice southern metal riff that doesn’t overstay its welcome more than it needs to. Around 1:50 there’s a guitar solo with some very thick bass, which sounds absolutely perfect when the main riff comes back while the solo is still going before the last verse. A lot more laid back than the opener but still a great showing of their musicianship.

Next up is one of my favorite build ups in any song, this song is called Voice Of Disrepair. It’s the perfect bridge between the last 2 songs as the first half is pretty stoner metal esque just like Root but right after the second chorus there’s a really really nasty side to side part going into a breakdown. The riff in the breakdown is a nice little southern jawn too. Jonah’s vocals come back in around the 3 minute mark, the chorus comes back right after with a nice two step part which features a cowbell in one of the most toe tapping two step parts ever. Absolutely perfect.

The country esque interlude titled Silo is next which isn’t much to write home about. Just chill country style instrumentals that sounds like I’m stargazing on the bed of a pickup truck. There’s really not much to say

VTA comes after the interlude which injects this record that lost its momentum with that interlude with much needed energy. This song is great sleazy metal punk that bands like Kill Cheerleader would go on to perfect. But there’s one thing this song has that no other sleaze punk band has done since and that’s a breakdown in their sleaziest song and it’s perfectly done, just a slower version of what they did previously. Fuckin great music

Slug is my favorite, and it really sounds like its namesake. Slow and fat, but I mean that in a very positive way as the riff is perfectly stonery. But after the first chorus there’s another great 2 step part which makes you realize where future southern metalcore bands like ETID got it from. The drums in the 2 step part are punchy, thick, and just sound perfect. The tempo changes move a lot but the best part is the 2nd to last fast part at 3:20 when it speeds up for a second before slowing down with each hit before speeding back out all capped off with Jonah hitting a “yeah” which is best described as James Hetfield meeting a warlord with the intensity he screams it out. What a great song.

The next song is the ever groovy track Twitching Tongues, which another groovy ass hardcore band got their name after. I love the chorus with how off kilter yet dancey the riffs and drums are. It’s punchy like grunge coming out at the time, but dancey with the patterns, while also showcasing a darker version of a hair metal style. I’m no elitist either so I mean that as a high compliment. Great track that really showcases a different yet similar side of OLW. Yes I know I sound stupid but how else can I describe it without humming it over writing like an idiot.

Nineveh opens with an amazing two step part I always forget about until the song comes on, then something awakens in me like a sleeper agent. The chorus is mad groovy too. But after the second chorus and verse it changes gears into that dancey side again before going into a southern esque breakdown and solo. After the solo you can only hear the faint main riff inciting a nasty side to side part into a sweet breakdown that is just godly. 

The song fades out as we go to Darkly which I prefer to Silo. It seems like a fitting end to a great record and we can all go home happy.

Or so you think as it gets interrupted by some electronic noises followed by drums and bass, then a riff comes in sounding like Schools Out For Summer by Alice Cooper, this is what I call a closer, this is December. Jonah’s voice goes pretty high on verse one with the groovy riff in the background as he screams “I will writhe in my December.” Verse 2 comes in half time on the drums which gives it the moshy groove to it which makes me wanna fight someone, the chorus comes back as it gets more groovy with a 2 step part before transitioning into a side to side and breakdown before transitioning to the Schools Out sounding intro in the greatest minute and a half of heavy music I heard recorded. Jonah comes back in with the drums being slightly quicker. Finally there’s another chorus and another breakdown which puts this record to bed.

Goddamn do I enjoy this record. By no means is it in my upper echelon but i think the good vastly outweighs the bad. I was honestly debating reviewing it because of how little I have to say about it but then I heard December on the first day of December (today at the time of writing) and decided the time to review this is now. Great record which inspired some shit I really love nowadays.