It's strange world I tell thee. I review one Warrior Soul show and suddenly my in-box is full of bands called Demons Claw and the like. All of them gluttons for punishment it would seem.
Each and every one of them is looking for a review of their latest opus and if I work on the premise of “if I have nothing good to say then it's best I don't say anything at all” then I suppose you would be lucky if I managed to pass comment on about 2% of the bands.
Listening to them is like wiping your arse (Ass for our yank readers) with sandpaper.
There's a great deal of screaming involved and it's doubtful you would want to repeat the experience.
Although that said there are some gems to be found.
Mongrel are a band that certainly fall into that category. A little diamond in the rough.
Descriptively the title of their ep is spot on. I could have been lazy and just said that it does what it says on the tin, but there is far more to it than that.
This re-recording of tracks from an album they released called “Fear, Lies and Propaganda” are as finely balanced as I've heard.
It has to be said that the magpie tendency to pick at the bands who could be described as the precious stones from the crown of rock and breathe new life into the sound is very cleverly done.
You get some hints of Iron Maiden, Metallica, Anthrax, Plasmatics and a whole fistful more, but none of the tracks sounds like they are stuck in an eighties or even a nineties rut.
They do actually come across as the new breed of the old school. Another link in a very long chain.
If rock music of this ilk was to make a resurgence and enjoy the mass popularity that it did back when it swept the world - and every teenage kid from here to there was into it - then I would suspect that Mongrel would do very well out of the renewed interest.
You can get a free download of the bands ep here http://mongrel.bandcamp.com/ and they're on myspace to. http://www.myspace.com/mongrel
I'm sure they will provide a nice surprise to anyone who thought that metal styled rock had went the way of the dinosaur.
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