Mouth Ulcers - Silent Pictures EP (2026) Hi-Res

Fast-rising foursome Mouth Ulcers are flying the freak flag for modern Goth. Their seven-track debut, Silent Pictures, reveals them to be masters of their heritage while looking firmly to the future. Nothing to be sore about, says Robert Plummer.

It’s only their first release, but Mouth Ulcers have already nailed their colours firmly to the mast. “Post-punk and Goth music still exists in 2026 and it sounds like this,” declares a post on their Instagram account. That shows how Goth, formerly the genre that dared not speak its name, is now a well-defined legacy brand – and one that takes a lot to live up to.

Fortunately, Silent Pictures is a fine showcase that displays the four Londoners’ talents to best advantage. It begins with an eerie mist of white noise before flanged guitar, propulsive bass and metronomic drums kick in, recalling the effortless kinetic rush of the Cure at the dawn of the 1980s. However, instead of copying Robert Smith’s plaintive wail, Zak Watson’s haunted-house vocal is buried so deep in the mix that it could have been captured on tape by ghost hunters.

That opening track, Prevail, sets the scene with its nightmarish lyrics that urge defiance in the face of terror. “I think we’ve been here before/In a lake of poison,” intones Watson, while the tune’s hypnotic locked groove acts out its own eternal return. All that can be done is to “prevail to the end”.

The same insistent, obsessive quality characterises Western Horror Story, but this time Watson and fellow guitarist Josephine Rose add twang and texture to their soundscape. David Zbirka’s drumming sets a galloping pace, like a horseman with many miles of bad road to cover. “And everything leads to nothing/And every time I see you, I need you to stay,” Watson and Rose recite in unison as if casting a spell.

A gentle fade-in heralds the tribal tom-toms and scurrying guitar of Space, buoyed by Jamie-Lee Culver’s fluid bass and the rat-a-tat of digital handclaps. It’s an unsettling tale of lost love, possibly disrupted by premature death. “Time has bled to the veins, but I never should see you again,” say the inscrutable lyrics.

The title track is the mini-album’s most unabashed rock-out, with sheet-metal guitar that resembles demons stomping on human dreams. That’s reflected in its forlorn lyric, one of the more easily audible on the record. Watson is bereft yet stoical as he delivers the song’s message: “I need to find a way/To swallow/The pain/And silent pictures/Are fading away.”

The same breakneck momentum and vocal clarity persist on Closer To You, as Watson’s voice takes on a cavernous new quality. “I can’t seem to control myself,” he mouths in frustration. Even as he hopes to win the affections of his beloved, the elements are against him: “Over the hillside/The lightning strikes you twice.”

Although Satisfy begins in a more mellow vein, with gently strummed guitar over a martial snare-drum rhythm, it soon builds to the band’s customary frenzy. Watson’s voice is deep and rumbling again as he outlines a misfits’ quest to find a place where they belong: what could be more Goth than that? “We’re falling around with nowhere to go,” he laments, “this town, it takes your living soul.”

Finally, A Perfect End sports layers of chiming guitar and another irresistible surge of forward motion: if the Cult are selling sanctuary, Mouth Ulcers are definitely buying. “In the end, it’s just another perfect day,” sings Watson, clearly less chuffed about it than Lou Reed would have been. Then the sound of church bells sings us to our rest, or is it a portent of an unquiet afterlife?

In another of their Instagram posts, Mouth Ulcers say they make “dark Gothic rock from the haunted suburbs”. While many others share their edge-city origins, their sound unlocks the portal to a more spectral realm: it’s not just the net curtains that are twitching in their shadow world. Their sepulchral quest has only just begun, but if you seek to accompany them, take care – the journey promises to be long and eventful.