Mayhem Mavericks – ‘Mayhem Mavericks’

(Street Symphonies Records)

Italian’s Mayhem Maverick’s create Melodic Hard Rock with emphasis on the Hard, that packs a punch. I was impressed initially with this album, and further listens only enhanced my initial positive feelings for these songs. These guys have delivered some pretty potent Melodic Hard Rock which is very memorable.     

This album has a full power station buzz of energy and has a rambunctious and emboldening tone to everything. It’s that energy that really indicates these songs would impress massively in the live arena. Some of these choruses are obvious live audience crowd pleasers. It’s not all fist pumping choruses though; there’s some really smooth memorable ones on here too.

Something that makes Mayhem Maverick’s slightly different to similar sounding bands is how thunderous and fast paced its rhythm section is. Those explosive drums and bass lines make this a lot heavier, but it never overpowers these songs melodic edge. It also bolsters the reason these songs would kick faces off live! Not literally of course, but I’d still expect to see some bruises.

It’s a solid album but I’d highlight the infectious rocker ‘Midnight Crawler’ with its thunderous rhythms and a killer chorus. As well as ‘I Can Feel The Heartache’ which is Anthemic Melodic Hard Rock at it’s finest with a instant crowd-pleasing chorus.

After my first spin I did wonder if people may find this album generic, because at a casual glance it does feel a little safe. I was enjoying these songs but was it because they were following a formula I like and appeals to my personal tastes. After further listens and looking a little deeper, I think to refer to this album as formulaic would be doing a big disservice to this band. There is more depth to these songs and the way they are constructed to really show them as pretty clever song writers who know a good hook when they hear one. They may write songs in a very familiar way, but these songs are far from bland and multiple spins will emphasise that to those who listen deeper.

I’d definitely recommend this to fans of the genre, it may not offer anything new in the grand scheme of things, but for what it is, it’s really enjoyable. There are loads of impactful choruses and it can be a real fist pumping rabble rousing affair at times, that really gets me rocking!

8/10

Essential Track – ‘Midnight Crawler’

Review by Woody