Mendeed is a band I’ve had my eye on for some time. I first caught up with them when they supported Dragonforceon part of their Sonic Firestorm tour. Their debut release This War Will Last Forever was a hard hitting Metalcore album from five angry young men; you could feel the anger and frustration crashing through the speakers. An anger and frustration from people who see music as the only way to escape the grey future you can expect living in a nowhere town like Dumbarton, just outside Glasgow, Scotland. The Dead Live By Love may not be as anger fuelled as This War… but there is still enough there to power the heavy, crushing riffs and screaming vocals that drive this album along at a blistering pace.

Now that they have left behind the prospect of a grey future, the guys have turned down the anger and frustration just a tad making The Dead Live By Love a more melodic and tuneful creation; relying on improved musicianship and songwriting to carry the album. Perhaps more controlled anger and frustration is a better thing to say as the aggression still comes crashing out at you but with more precision rather than a heavy barrage. Vocally, frontman Dave Proctor is an excellent screamer; managing to carry a tune rather than holler in a monotone that is prevalent in Metalcore vocalists. He also makes more use of clean vocals this time, which will piss-off some Metalcore purists but which other Metalheads will see as adding more emotion and diversity to the songs, such as The Flight and Through Dead Eyes which lean more towards Melodic Power Metal. Bassist, Chris Lavery, lends his vocal talents to the mix with some growls, screams and melodies in all the right places. Mendeed have been accused of ‘Ripping-Off’ styles from various Scandinavian Metallers such as At The Gates and Children Of Bodom. Admittedly you can hear the Scandinavian influences in their music but you can also hear Maiden-esque Heavy Metal, Dragonfore speed guitaring and Slayer type Thrashing going on; but you can say this of many bands. And, although you can hear these influences in their music, Mendeed have enough style of their own not to be classed as a ‘Rip-off’ band. One thing that I find kinda grates though is something that has carried over from This War… and that is the kick drum pattern, kick-triplet, kick-triplet, kick-triplet, that drummer Kevin Matthews habitually slips into. Maybe it’s his trigger setting or how it’s been recorded but with it being more of a crack than a thump, it stands out noticeably. However, that is just a minor point in what is otherwise some impressive tub-thumping; his blastbeats just slay!

The guitaring from Steven Nixon and Steph Gildea is the focal point of The Dead Live By Love and there are some quality moments of thrash, speed, melodies and technicality all through the album. Showing that their talents are not limited to fast thrashing and shredding solos, the Melodic, acoustically sounding interlude in Blood Brothers is one of those moments that pull you up short and make you go “Hmmm!”. The guys play some memorable riffs, killer thrash grooves and jaw dropping solos; all this combined makes for enough guitar widdley-wankery to satisfy any guitar junky.

With The Dead Live By Love only being Mendeed’s second full length, they are still settling down and finding their own style. This War Will Last Forever was a good launch platform for the band, and The Dead Live By Love has expanded their musical arsenal enormously, taking them from a Metal / Noisecore band to now include elements of Melodic Death, Power, Speed and Thrash. You usually find that a band’s third album is their defining moment, the pivotal point that decides what musical path they are going to travel. I feel that The Dead Live By Love has already shown what direction Mendeed are headed, and at the moment, I want to go along for the ride; speed and aggression seem to be what’s powering their machine and they’ve got a full tank. Hopefully album three will have some special ingredient that will give them that little extra clout to catapult them into the major league. These are hard working guys that have toured almost constantly for the past two years so I have no doubt that their efforts are going to pay off in the near future and they’ll soon be headlining in some of the big name European festivals. After that, world recognition is only round the corner.