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Non-Prog CD Reviews

Mongrel

Reclamation

Review by Gary Hill

I dig this album. It’s raw, and it’s got a lot of rough edges. It also rocks. At times it falls into the punk rock or even hardcore category. At other points it’s closer to the almost metallic hard rock of groups like Motorhead. However you slice it, though, this thing is a strong release that never feels tired or redundant.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2013  Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review
Bored to Death

A hard rocking and energized motif leads this set off in style. The vocals are raw and rock and roll. This is a bit like Motorhead meets Girlschool. It is the first of many tunes to get a parental advisory on this album.

Pseudocide
This is hardcore punk. It’s fast and frantic and very cool.
F*** Off and Die
As you can guess from the edit on the title, this gets another of those parental advisories. Musically this one’s closer to the Motorhead side of things. It’s angry, hard rocking and very cool.
Zombies of War
They turn things towards more pure metal here. This is heavy, plodding and very cool. It’s more melodic than most of the stuff here and is a nice change.
The More I Bleed
There’s more of a modern metal vibe to this cut. It’s raw, but also rather complex and quite tasty. This is heavy and cool.
Tarnished Halo
There’s a mellow and melodic bass guitar and melodic guitar section that opens this. Then they pound in very heavy and this reminds me a lot of Rockbitch when it turns to that heavier sound. It’s thrashy and quite cool. There is a cool melodic guitar solo later in this number.
C and a 1/2
This is a real punk rocker. It’s angry, pounding and just plain cool. It gets another parental advisory on the lyrics.
Crucifiction
Aggressive and thrashy, there is quite a bit of punk rock influence on this stomper, too.
Revisionist
A mellow introductory section gives way to a real stomping jam. We get a return to the mellow sounds later in the track. Then a false ending is interrupted by a short reprise of the pounding segment.
Stillborn Savior
Seriously heavy metal pounds out here. After the intro it shifts to a more thrashy segment and the vocals are more punk-like on the verses. The choruses have more metallic singing.
Wake Up
Angry modern metal pounds out on this killer track.
No Gods, No Masters
There’s a frantic pace to this and plenty of parental advisories for the lyrics. It’s quite punk in delivery. Yet, there’s almost a Johnny Cash vibe here in some ways. The guitar solo channels Motorhead.
 
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