MEAN STREAK

Swedish band Mean Streak's second album, ‘Metal Slave’, which is produced and performed well, is full of strong riffs and has its roots in traditional metal. The opening two tracks ‘Whom The Gods Love Die Young’, and ‘Battle Within’ are both decent enough efforts but don't quite have the hooks to make them stand out. ‘The Seventh Sign’ and ‘Rock City’ are average and relatively uninteresting plodders. ‘Eyes of a Stranger’ and ‘Raise Your Hands’ are in an entirely different league with both being slices of great melodic metal and are amongst the standout tracks. The bass driven intro to ‘Sin City Lights’ turns out to be a really catchy number with an instantly likeable chorus. ‘Carved in Stone’ and closing track ‘Sinners and Saints’ are power metal anthems both coming across like a melodic version of Helloween and show how great this band can really be. The title track is pulsating classic metal, which opens and closes with an epic Iron Maiden bass/lead guitar and features a killer dumb ass chorus. The lack of consistency on ‘Metal Slave’ lets it down to a certain degree but there is enough quality on here to make it worth checking out. If Mean Streak can repeat the songwriting class shown on the stronger tracks for their next album then they might be able to get themselves noticed, which in view of the high standard of many of the current European power/traditional metal bands would be quite an achievement.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Black Lodge Records

Album

METAL SLAVE

Review by Dave Crewe

RUNNING TIME:

43:37

RELEASE DATE:

25th Sept 2009

TRACK LISTING

1) Whom the Gods Love Die Young
2) Battle Within
3) Eyes of a Stranger
4) The Seventh Sign
5) Raise Your Hands
6) Rock City
7) Sin City Lights
8) Carved in Stone
9) Metal Slave
10) Sinners 'n' Saints

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

Sweden

"The lack of consistency on ‘Metal Slave’ lets it down to a certain degree but there is enough quality on here to make it worth checking out."