Yesterday I saw a tweet that had a photograph of a sticker on a pavement that said: Walk This Way. Obviously it was about the new regulations in shops as the lockdown eases, but that didn’t stop about a million people underneath making some joke or other about Run DMC.
I resisted the urge to be that guy, and inform them all that before the duet there was the 1975 song from the “Toys In The Attic” record. Anyway it would have been disingenuous, because the first time I heard it, was as a rap song too.
It is staggering the cultural significance of songs like that, and Anthrax doing the Public Enemy thing had- and evidently still have. It seems crazy now when everything is a melting pot, and no one really cares, but back in the 80s, this stuff broke down some serious walls.
Of course, there’s always that band in any movement, there’s always the bands that are “critically acclaimed”, but get kind of left behind in the wash, as another band gets the adulation.
What I mean is, in metal, for every Maiden, there’s a Diamond Head. In sleaze, for every Motley Crue there was a Vain, for every Nirvana there was a Tad, and well, pertinent to “Violate” for every Faith No More there was a Mordred.
It’s a little ironic that this is due out this week. As far as I can tell “Volition” is their first collection of new material since 1994 (the single “The Baroness” came out a few years ago), and this is the week I should have – would have if it wasn’t for Coronavirus – been seeing Faith No More.
That thing about critical acclaim? A 5k review in Kerrang for Mordred’s second record got me interested. The comparison they drew with Mike Patton’s boys got me buying it.
That record was called “In This Life” and that line up is mostly back for this, and it is tempting to think of it as a piece of nostalgia.
Then you listen to it, and its nothing to do with a relic. This is entirely about looking forward. “Not For You” is moshpit ready – lets not forget they are a Bay Area band – but the turntable, the lyrics, they are pure Mordred. Scott Holderby’s take on the political situation in the US: “this American Dream is not for you, there’s a lock on the box” and the punk attitude is here too.
But even for Mordred there’s a lot of breadth here. “What Are We Going To Do”, sees Aaron “Pause” Vaughan front and centre for a real urban lament. Sparse, drum machines, dystopian, nihilistic. Maybe there’s no light at the end of the tunnel?
“Love Of Money” brings the metal back, as it were, and this slams like Exodus doing the Toxic Waltz, but the turntables keep the crossover going, and not as a garnish either, not as an after-thought, but because its utterly ingrained in them.
“The Baroness” has been around long enough to get a mention in the gig review I wrote of them back in August 2015, but it was worthy of being their comeback single then and sounds superb here too. James Sanguinetti and Danny White play huge riffs here, and its like they’ve never been away.
That they made music that sounded like this when the cool kids were losing their minds over Nirvana will probably get overlooked now. We are, of course, in a different, time, but those of us who understand just how vital this all was, will be immensely pleased to know that Mordred sound just as good – and challenging – as ever. Not so much blurring the boundaries anymore as they don’t really exist. On “Volition” they are just following their own free will.
Rating 8.5/10
