While I really enjoyed this bands debut EP, Put On Your Rosy Red Glasses, my excitement for this lot has generally waned with each release. And with the band still languishing on a relatively minor metal label while countless other similar bands get snatched up by some of the ‘bigger’ labels, it seems to indicate the band may have already reached their popularity peak. And now with their second full length album, the aptly titled Mongrel, as with Sad Nuclear Sad, the tantalizingly talented band continues their less deathcore, more quirky, more melodic take of spazzy, neo grind/screamo.

Yeah-that’s a bitter description to swallow, but an accurate reflection of the band’s ADD styled metal that’s bolstered by supreme musicianship but a simply directionless and focusless emphasis on the bizarre end of math metal/grindcore. Musically, the skill of the band is without question and at times, it shines through the squealing, mewling chaos, and often its some form of almost Flamenco on crack inspired guitar play such as the moments that litter opener “Imagine Notion Express”, “Grandfather”, atmospheric “Cradle to the Crater” or even the reigned in and enjoyable start of “Jay Walking Backwards” that show when the band does take their required dose of Ritalin, they are capable of so much more than jarring fits of finger numbing chaos and slightly annoying musical and vocal histrionics (“El Piñata Des Los Muerte”, “I Admit it….it Was a Whore”, “Paper Weight Pigs”) that wear thin particularly in today’s musical climate.

Still the flashes of brilliance make the album worthwhile and I am still rooting for the band to make a defining statement with one of their albums, as the skill is there and so is the desire, but right now Mongrel is just that-a mangy and yappy but lovable mutt of metal.

[Visit the band's website]

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