Album Review: Mordred - Volition
Reviewed by Carl Black
Rap metal has a bit of a reputation of being a badly behaved child. Mischievous and roguish. Think Dennis the Menace on Ketamine. Time and tide waits for no man, and some soul searching, maturing, reflection and some growing up needs to occur. The baseball cap can only be turned around the wrong way for a certain amount of time. Mordred, who pioneered this genre in the late 80s early 90s have had more time than most. After an extended leave of absence, they reunited four years ago. Ever since, we have waited for the first recordings of the Bay area’s finest. 'Volition' is an E.P. of four tracks with an album to follow.
The band are smooth and tight and all the ingredients you love about Mordred are still there but the sound is more refined and focused than their earlier efforts. We get thrash from guitarists James Sanguinetti and Danny White, rhythm and groove from bassist Art Liboon and drummer Jeff Gomes and the Hip Hop, samples and extra dimension bits and pieces from Aaron (Pause) Vaughn. But its vocalist, Scott Holderby who is the tipping factor. Over the course of these four songs he uses a different avenue of attack which define each song and separates them from the next.
We get an almost spoken word performance on 'Not for You' which maintains a level of menace throughout. A fully focused rapping style in a similar vein to the Disposable Heroes of Hypocrisy on The Baroness and a twisting, trippy vocal performance on 'Love of Money'. The fourth song 'What Are We Coming To' is a contemporary Hip Hop song in the vain of Drake or Lil Peep.
This is not for the angst ridden teenager who wants to break stuff after listening to the new Limp Bizkit album. This is for the driven and focused angry individual who has the new Tool, Kendrick Lamar and De La Soul albums next to each other in their Spotify account. We await the arrival of the new album with bated breath.
Photo credit: Tim Finch Photography
