Mendeed

Following on from their blistering debut album, This War Will Last Forever, Scottish metallers *Mendeed *are playing a single warm-up show in London, in preparation for their nationwide tour with the new darlings of modern metal, Trivium.

The Dumbarton-based quintet has blended an exhilarating mix of old-school thrash and power metal with harsh vocals to bring a new perspective on the metalcore scene. The album is a polished slice of contemporary metal with hints toward an experimentation outside of their known boundaries but when played live, the songs take a much more ferocious turn. Most of the melody appears to have left the building but does seem to have been replaced with a welcome urgency and bile.

Tonight, their call-to-arms choruses and precise musicianship are played immaculately with livewire bassist, *Chris Lavery *a focal point throughout. Indeed the mohicaned madman is a constant threat to the health of his bandmates as he swings his guitar and himself around the stage with no fear and much vigour. It is vocalist *Dave Proctor *that is required to scream his way around Lavery’s antics as well as whip the crowd up into a fitting frenzy and he succeeds with ease.

With the familiar tones of high-speed kick-drums a near constant feature of the set, subtlety is not something that these chaps deal in too much. Add a strong selection of carefully orchestrated riffs to the bludgeoned basslines and you’ll understand what these well-rehearsed bruisers are all about.

While *Mendeed *hardly try turn the metalcore genre on its head, they have proven that they are keen freshen up the scene and test a few unknown waters. If they keep bringing this sort of talent to the fore more frequently you may well hear a whole lot more from Mendeed in years to come.