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MONGREL’S CROSS
Psalter Of The Royal Dragon Court

Hells Headbangers (2018)
Rating: 7.5/10

Strange band name, eh? Mongrel’s Cross are a group from Brisbane, Australia that formed in 2009. In spite of Psalter Of The Royal Dragon Court being Mongrel’s Cross’ second full-length release, the outfit have been described as “one of the best-kept secrets down under”. Hopefully, this review will get people’s heads turning and ears burning.

Opening track ‘King Of The Beasts’ marches in with a Bathory-styled plod circa Blood Fire Death (1988), but then soon becomes an edgy, rattling design built upon a bony percussive thread before a rush of blackened melody takes over.

I’m not overly familiar with the previous output of Mongrel’s Cross, but would certainly recommend Psalter Of The Royal Dragon Court based on this track alone; the outfit provide brisk, melodic strains hinting at black and death metal fusion, all led by a barking vocal style. What I really like about Mongrel’s Cross is the variety contained within each track, most of which run for well over five minutes. With that opener, we get stark, thorny trudges threaded with crisp leads and a nifty bass slog.

‘Neurian Transformation’ is a blazing face-ripper of a track that uses a lot of haste before the vocal intrusion brings the tempo down a level as Grand Mongrel foetidly slurps his vocals like a charming blood-thirsty Count eyeing up a victim. It’s those frenetic blasts of cold, cutting speed which are the most effective however, as ‘The Thirteenth Card’ jars with its frenzied assault; akin to being slashed by a thousand razors, it cavorts with precision like a flailing scalpel-wielding maniac, built upon a feverish rhythm before that slower tempo comes rolling in like flowing silt.

It is certainly evil-sounding stuff without ever appearing as stuffy or lo-fi, the band carving monumental passages of almost angular nuances as the hilariously titled (intentional?) ‘From Transylvania To Tunbridge Wells’ – with its Gothic flecks of jerking melody – all feels rather black and shiny. Again, we follow what has now become a slightly predictable path of mid-tempo wickedness, but it’s nevertheless still rather flavoursome as laps of traditional metal darkness circa Mercyful Fate are taken up.

Another favourite of the bunch is ‘Trail Of The Serpent’; one of the nastier hurries guitar / percussion wise, the track is threaded with a lethal lead that spirals nicely into a militant march of the nefarious. I also enjoyed the juddering meticulousness of ‘Vessel Of Shar On’, an 11-minute wonder combing an abrasive flurry with those now expected trudges.

Admittedly, while Mongrel’s Cross is adept at building those scurrying chords of barbaric intensity, at times so many of the songs become easily readable in their flair. In that sense, a majority of the tracks would have benefited from being shorter bursts, but this is still an enjoyable and accessible opus which is vibrant with malicious musical marches into war and slick, snaking chord changes and slithering percussion. I’m rather surprised in fact that I liked such a glinting, gleaming opus, but I think you will too.

Neil Arnold

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