Mendeed: The Dead Live By Love

Just when you find the world being overrun by the veritable sea of Metalcore bands you get to hear something fresh like the guys in Mendeed and intense throttling that they seem to adeptly deliver. The first thing you will find as interesting is the band's point of origin being from Scotland where they showed on their previous release This War Will Last Forever, that Metal strikes just as hard on either side of the Atlantic. Having heard that album as well, I admit to liking the progression they had made musically over it with this one. Yes, the brutalization is still very present and shows forth on tracks like "Gravedigger" but when you hear the guitar leads on "Through Dead Eyes" you will agree that the band has wisely chosen to up the game in this brand of Metal music. The track also possesses some great harmony chorus sections. Mendeed also chooses to change the way this is delivered a little more in using more of a clean growling that more can understand rather then the guttural stuff and that aspect makes "Reload And Kill" a very accessible and potential fan favorite to hear in concert. I was also a fan of the singing done during "Take Me As I Am" as there were a number of different genre styles being visited and that kept me very interested in the song and the band as a whole. In truth there are more conventional Metal things going on here and that is a good thing because the "core" scene has begun to clog itself with too many bands starting to sound the same. The fact that they are taking the chance to keep things different and give the listener a consistent level of surprise proves to me as a Metal fan that these Scots are sure worth your time. They strike hard and fast like Braveheart himself and demonstrate killer technical chops to boot. The band is made up of Dave Proctor (lead vocals), Steven Nixon (lead guitars), Steph Gildea (guitar), Chris Lavery (bass), and Kevin Matthews (drums). The tight delivery of Metalcore meets Traditional Metal meets Tech-core makes them the perfect additional band for those who follow All That Remains and bands like that. Maybe Metal's new cry should be "FREEDOM"…….it works for me.

Track Listing
1. Burning Fear
2. The Fight
3. The Dead Live By Love
4. Fuel The Fire
5. Gravedigger
6. Our War
7. Blood Brothers
8. Through Dead Eyes
9. Reload 'N' Kill
10. Take Me As I Am
11. It's Not Over Yet
12. Thirteen

Added: May 7th 2007
Reviewer: Ken Pierce
Score:
Related Link: Mendeed Website
Hits: 2548
Language: english

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