{"id":20998,"date":"2014-07-28T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T00:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=20998"},"modified":"2014-08-01T16:27:31","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T16:27:31","slug":"album-review-english-dogs-the-thing-with-two-heads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-english-dogs-the-thing-with-two-heads\/","title":{"rendered":"ENGLISH DOGS – The Thing With Two Heads (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

ENGLISH DOGS
The Thing With Two Heads<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nCandlelight (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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English Dogs have never really got the credit they deserve, because \u2013 believe it or not \u2013 they were quite influential for bands such as Darkthrone<\/a>, who have made a living out of paying homage to this sort of crossover thrash. <\/p>\n

Over the years since their 1981 inception, English Dogs has released some important records such as 1987\u2019s Where Legend Began<\/em>. After a hiatus or two they\u2019ve pretty much taken 2014 by storm, releasing The Thing With Two Heads<\/em>. These guys have proven to be masters at mixing metal with punk, so it\u2019s no real surprise that this latest beast takes snippets from each era, the result being another anarchic rollercoaster ride into the depths of the insane psyche. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s an album that is every bit as speed metal as the next speed metal band, and yet it\u2019s also as every bit punk and brimming with attitude as you\u2019d expect from the gnarliest punk act. It\u2019s an interestingly mix when a band can belch out a sing-a-long chorus with, say, a rollicking speed metal solo, and it\u2019s certainly not a case of churning out the same old formula \u2013 far from it \u2013 as the likes of the instant \u2018Up From The Depths\u2019 stand side by side with the abrasive \u2018Planet Of The Living Dead\u2019 and the chugging \u2018Turn Away From The Light\u2019.<\/p>\n

Adie Bailey is more than adequate when it comes to delivering those venomous spits, and these are complemented by dashing riffs of Gizz Butt who, as usual, allows the record to become fluent and yet spiky in its delivery. Of course, the variety is welcome too and English Dogs always have a few unpredictable aces up their sleeves, namely the infectious \u2018Royal Flying Corpse\u2019 and the skull-thudding \u2018Hate Song\u2019 \u2013 all laced with that recognisable drum wallop of Andrew \u201cPinch\u201d Pinching. It\u2019s as punk \/ metal crossover as it gets; somehow sounding so refreshing yet at times containing the same hostility which gave the band their reputation back in the distant 80s. <\/p>\n

The album offers 11 superb tracks, culminating in the epic \u2018Down With The Underdogs\u2019. In-between, it\u2019s a case of battening down the hatches as the combo lays waste to the stereo with the short sniping \u2018Gorgonized\u2019, the equally buoyant \u2018Ghost Note\u2019 and the pummelling \u2018The Thing Will Arise\u2019. Indeed, the English Dogs family tree is a confusing one to say the least, but this incarnation appears to be the only one that matters and further proof that old punks will never die.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ENGLISH DOGSThe Thing With Two Heads Candlelight (2014)Rating: 8\/10 English Dogs have never really got the credit they deserve, because \u2013 believe it or not \u2013 they were quite influential for bands such as Darkthrone, who have made a living out of paying homage to this sort of crossover thrash. Over the years since their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-english-dogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20998"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21002,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20998\/revisions\/21002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}