Mean Streak - Metal Slave

\r\nSweden is really busy "producing" new metal bands that, even the weakest of them, make quality albums. Another band that makes it’s debut these days is Mean Streak with their album "Metal Slave". A solid work, good old-school heavy metal, with every one of the cliches, both in music and in lyrics, that have characterised heavy metal during the last years. Besides, from what I’ve seen, their main goal is to play the music they truly love and nothing else. If this is their only expectation, I’ll have to admit that they are fullfiling it with "Metal Slave". \r\n

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\r\nThe first notable fact is the album’s solid and professional production that gives out the power and rawness that an old-school heavy metal fan wants to hear from his/her favourite music. Mean Streak have Iron Maiden, Saxon (generally NWOBHM), Accept and Judas Priest as their many influences and they manage to avoid any sacrilege to their "gods" as their riffs, lyrics and general mood are deep into these legendary bands. My three favorites "Whom The Gods Love Die Young", "Rock City" and "Sin City Lights" are a result of their lust for playing music and their love for 80’s heavy metal. But the rest of the album follows a well known way of playing that will neither disappoint or thrill us. Adding that, given the circumstances of metal industry, this work can have limited audience as it’s not at all rennovative and there have been bands in the past that have played and still playing the exact same way. \r\n

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\r\nI’ll have to admit that everyone of the band’s members knows exactly what they’re doing and they do it pretty well. Old school heavy metal is still alive and kicking on the year 2009 and has a lot more to give to the world especially when its composed by bands that play music from their hearts.         \r\n

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\r\nChris "Wildchild" Zarkadakis\r\n

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