{"id":90510,"date":"2021-07-23T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T23:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=90510"},"modified":"2021-08-17T20:02:27","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T19:02:27","slug":"album-review-mordred-the-dark-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-mordred-the-dark-parade\/","title":{"rendered":"MORDRED – The Dark Parade (2021) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

MORDRED
The Dark Parade<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nM-Theory Audio (2021)<\/span>
Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

This has been a long time coming; San Francisco Bay Area experimental metalheads Mordred bringing their first full-length opus since 1994\u2019s confused The Next Room<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I have to admit that having been a fan from day one, I was nervous in reviewing this album, especially since the major disappointment that was the tepid Volition<\/em><\/a> EP from last year. Times change, but what really hurt was hearing a band somehow lost, compressed and, dare I say it, \u201cpredictable\u201d, which is a word I\u2019d never used in describing a band that was once so ahead of its time. However, it\u2019s a new day and The Dark Parade<\/em> is a new record, albeit one cloaked under an irritating title \u2013 all too close to My Chemical Romance for my liking \u2013 and cover art brimming like some glossy graphic novel. But let\u2019s forget that and get onto the music.<\/p>\n

Now, The Dark Parade<\/em> is way too short of a record. In fact, it feels far shorter than the 40-minutes duration. But it kicks off with the snappy \u2018Demonic #7\u2019, a feisty, thrashy recycled tune straight from the halcyon days of the 1991 In This Life<\/em> opus, which brings to mind the orgasmic strains of \u2018Progress\u2019 with its sharpness and DJ Pause\u2019s consistently effective scratching, even though you know it\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n

Vocalist Scott Holderby introduces himself with a darker, deeper, choppy tone, whereby he raps rather than sings. But the chorus is effective and catchy and the music has a swift groove, although it\u2019s not the sort of track I\u2019d have chosen to kick-off the album.<\/p>\n

Where Mordred\u2019s real strength lies is in a track such as \u2018Malignancy\u2019; a devious, chuggy groove thrasher where Holderby remains on rap duties mixed with hardcore yelps. But it\u2019s the chorus that brings the class to the table, emerging like some drifting, floating liquid ooze and evoking the same psyched-up subtlety which made the 1992 Vision<\/em> EP so brilliant.<\/p>\n

\u2018Malignancy\u2019, featuring Testament\u2019s Chuck Billy for extra beef, concerns the topic of the hideous disease cancer, and also contains some of Pause\u2019s best work alongside Danny White\u2019s sublime chords as Jeff Gomes hammers the skins. The chorus is so melodiously ascending and divine as it soars from the quizzical turntable teases and cranked up metallic fusion. For me, \u2018Malignancy\u2019 is classic Mordred and showcases a cutting edge and oomph sorely missing from the Volition<\/em> opus.<\/p>\n

\u2018I Am Charlie\u2019 hits next, and again there\u2019s that strong thrashing element. It\u2019s crisp and angry, with Scotty Holderby again resorting to a rapping style of vocal injection, but thankfully as the track shifts on he resorts to those recognisable tones of old, albeit briefly. It\u2019s not a weak track, but it is a tad generic, hinting at latter day Faith No More with the riffing.<\/p>\n

In a sense, \u2018Dragging For Bodies\u2019 runs the same path, but this time the bass is sturdy and there\u2019s some nice effects to bring a melodic twinkle. Holderby remains with those darker, smoky, soulful tones as the track drifts nicely to a memorable-ish chorus, but for me this reeks of \u201cnu metal\u201d flavour and stirs that Faith No More pot all too excessively.<\/p>\n

Many of course will disagree, but The Dark Parade<\/em> at the halfway point is a pin-pointer to mid-to-late 90s genre-splicing metal; think Anthrax in some of those dense heaps of technicality and dark, brooding soundsdcapes.<\/p>\n

This is nowhere more apparent than on the near seven-minute title track which begins with an infectious street carnival-esque atmosphere and groove fuelled by Danny White and James Sanguinetti\u2019s layered shreds, while Scott Holderby\u2019s vocals are a melting of mid-range chops and mechanised drools. Behind him, the instruments fornicate wildly, and again hinting at some of the traits which made The Next Room<\/em> interesting but confused. It does work better here, bringing a kaleidoscopic nature to the opus as heavy, washes of colour drip over the seemingly Gothic globules of thrash.<\/p>\n

\u2018All Eyes On The Prize\u2019 begins with dark narration and feels like I\u2019m suddenly in some Gothic graphic novel, or is that the effects of staring at the cover too long?! Even so, the track chugs nicely with steely riff and occasional turntable quirks. Again Scott Holderby goes for the moodier chops, and once more Faith No More comes to mind: \u201cForward… forward… fucking forward\u201d<\/em> he rants, as the band bring devilish old school Bay Area clanking.<\/p>\n

\u2018Dented Lives\u2019 continues the steamy moodiness and Middle Eastern promises before slapping the listener with a heavy dose of heavy funk thrash. \u201cOh Mother Mary can\u2019t you take away this pain\u201d<\/em> Holderby beams, and that\u2019s the vocal style I\u2019ve been missing \u2013 a higher, lofty, smoother tone harkening back to those golden years from 1989 to 1992. Yeah, I realise that people change, but so desperate am I for one of my favourite bands of all time to be great again.<\/p>\n

As \u2018Dented Lives\u2019 continues its jaunt I realise how after numerous listens this record has grown on me, culminating in the 70s groove of closer \u2018Smash Goes The Bottle\u2019. The song prowls steadily into that classic Mordred territory fused with Thin Lizzy aesthetics as Scott Holderby echoes Phil Lynott\u2019s cool tones, while the rest of the band celebrates with seemingly drunken shenanigans. However, there\u2019s something uncomfortable about this track \u2013 it just doesn\u2019t fit. And again I feel strange saying that as Mordred were never a band with limitations and could always flow into whichever style they required. But somehow those retro riffs don\u2019t seem to merge successfully with the yobby thrash, and it\u2019s certainly not a way to finish an album.<\/p>\n

As \u2018Smash Goes The Bottle\u2019 comes to a clattering halt amidst a sea of thrown beer and DJ Pause\u2019s devilish scratches, I\u2019m left a tad confused by The Dark Parade<\/em>. The record still maintains strong levels of dark, cutting thrash, but after the title track the album does dip, and knowing that there\u2019s a handful of old unreleased tracks out there I do wish the guys had injected some new life into those rather than tried to convince us with the closing track or, say, \u2018Dented Lives\u2019.<\/p>\n

Oddly, Mordred\u2019s fourth full-length release seems to have more in common with the miserable creation that was The Next Room<\/em>, but this time round it does work for the most part. All members present bring their own mercurial flavours which in turn create numerous phases within the sound. The album shifts as one would expect a Mordred album too shift, and those more subtle, at times older funkier jigs are not as readily apparent as the combo steers more towards a darker, tech-thrash brooding with lashings of that aforementioned mid-to-late 90s experimentalism.<\/p>\n

However, just like Mordred\u2019s sound I\u2019m also older, and I guess darker, so no longer do I salivate with excitement over records such as this. But then again, we\u2019ll never recapture the glory and happiness one felt when first hearing In This Life<\/em> all those years ago.<\/p>\n

This latest album parades a brooding beefiness, but in a world now saturated with styles, The Dark Parade<\/em> falls a bit short even though it is a well-crafted and often smouldering and, dare I say it, deftly sinister composition.<\/p>\n

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

MORDREDThe Dark Parade M-Theory Audio (2021)Rating: 7.5\/10 This has been a long time coming; San Francisco Bay Area experimental metalheads Mordred bringing their first full-length opus since 1994\u2019s confused The Next Room. I have to admit that having been a fan from day one, I was nervous in reviewing this album, especially since the major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1313],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-mordred"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90510","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=90510"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90519,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90510\/revisions\/90519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}