Mongrel's Cross

I came upon this one on an online forum where the band posted a sample track on rapidshare or something similar and a contact email. No MySpace, which is a nice unusual touch. I wrote and the demo soon arrived. A simple cardboard layout with a crude logo and a picture of the band members drinking beer in some ruin. Their faces are deliberately obscured. It was hard to say what I was expecting before I put this on. After some years it become easy to judge the book by its cover, which is an unhealthy habit because the cover may be such that you are meant to be deceived and when the music comes on, it’s a surprise. Sort of the case here: for all its throwaway crustiness, this demo’s cover conceals a professional this recording and a bunch of kick-ass Black/Thrash metal tracks. Most readily this reminds me of another Australian Black/Trash act – Razor of Occam. Also this rules as far as songwriting goes. There is definitely a nice touch of icy black metal here, but the bones are definitely punk/thrash with a heavy thick bass-affirmative sound, dynamic drumming and slightly horse vocal yelps. The odd melancholy guitar passage swirls by and there is a solo lead here and there. This stuff will be great live and speaking of that this band is supporting Gospel of the Horns in August in Sydney.

Originally published in Procession of Black Doom zine #4