Once Bitten is the brand new album from British hard rock legends Leaf Hound, their first album since 2007's Unleashed, and only their 3rd album overall since their landmark debut Growers of Mushroom back in 1971. Highly influential to genres such as hard rock, psychedelic rock, blues rock, and stoner rock, Leaf Hound never quite got the recognition they probably deserved, but with lead singer Pete French jumping ship early on to join Atomic Rooster, the writing was on the wall for the band. After a series of starts and stops over the years, French has once again resurrection the Hound, along with Luke Rayner on guitar, his son Dominic French on drums, and bassist Pete Herbert.
Released on Repertoire Records, Once Bitten, is a hell of a comeback for the band, and you can hear that these guys mean business right from the opening track "Burn the House Down", a snarling, hard rocking number with some savage riffing from Rayner and a very strong vocal performance from French, who sounds very much like legendary UFO frontman Phil Mogg throughout this album, mixed with a little John Waite of The Baby's/Bad English. His voice really has held up well over the years, and he sounds great here. "Cinderella" is another memorable hard rocker, and "Broken Dreams" sees the band adopting a slightly bluesier and atmospheric sound, with nice lead guitar work from Rayner. There's the gritty, crunchy "Chain Gang", the swirling "Watching Life's Wheels", and the fast-paced, furious, and quite catchy "Yippee Ki Yay", and all the while I can't help but think that this is the album that I always hoped that UFO would when Vinnie Moore was in the band, but we never quite got. Other standout tracks here include the fist-pumping heavy blues rock of "Thought Police" (that riff!), the snarling shuffle of "Everybody's Somebody Tonight", the 'Mr. Big meets Winery Dogs' swagger of "Hold Back the Night", and the absolutely face-melting "Freelance Fiend", a remake of a song from their debut and easily my favorite song here, containing a killer riff that will instantly get you playing air guitar and ponder if you haven't just discovered a long-lost Cactus song.
I think after all these years, we finally got the true follow-up to Growers of Mushroom. Nothing against Unleashed, but this is the real deal folks, a smoldering hard rock album from a band that not enough people know about. One of 2025's biggest surprises!
Track Listing
1)Burn the House Down
2)Cinderella
3)Broken Dreams
4)Chain Gang
5)Watching Life's Wheels
6)Yippe Ki Yay
7)A Poor Boy
8)Thought Police
9)Everybody's Somebody Tonight
10)Bold 'n' Easy
11)Hold Back the Night
12)Freelance Fiend
13)High Danger
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