Mournblade – Mangled Lies
Having formed in 1987, only to now just release their debut MCD due to a list of tragedies a mile long, Mournblade have persevered, but are musically living in the past. In metal, this is often not a bad thing at all, but in this bands case, they come off sounding like a 100th generation late 80’s US thrash band with their mid-paced DRI affinity. Remember how boring “Thrash Zone” was? Mournblade have modeled themselves after this aesthetic with more of a demented underlying theme/tone. Predictable crunching and simplistic power chord riffs give “Mangled Lies” that knuckle dragger mosh freak persona where you hear the movement in the rhythms and you know exactly what’s coming next. Jeff Del Mastro’s vocals are an unconvincing rough shouting style that either sounds like a feeble attempt at insanity, or he follows the boring riff work note for note, beat for beat which really does little to give this music the dimension it desperately needs. The only thing this material really has going for it is a very full/warm sounding production giving the guitars a lot of presence. Too bad the actual musical content isn’t here to benefit from this in your face sound. “Mangled Lies” is dated in a bad way and an awful lot of work to sit all the way through. I got it… Mournblade sounds like they could have been on the later day New Renaissance Records roster when Anne Bolynn tried to sign up all the new and washed up bands she could before running that label into the ground. -Marty
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