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On disc: Engrained



Deep Rooted - Claudia Ehrhardt - 7 stars


www.myspace.com/engrained







Deep Rooted

Deep Rooted
(SPV - 2010)


The German quartet Engrained started in the early 90's and released some EPs and took part on samplers. And after almost 2 decades they finally present their debut full-length album - Deep Rooted. In the beginning they were based in hardcore, but these days it's more dirty rock mixed with punk.
After the intro they show at Dead Man's Hand their mix of sounds, so you get some metallic riffing, melodic lead guitar parts, hardcore-ish vocals, a Lemmy-like counterpart and a refrain which is made for gang shouts. Songs like See Me Running bring back early punk rock while Devils Don't Dream sounds like a homage to Motörhead - with a dash Ramones or early Misfits. While many hardcore acts and many punk bands have political and / or socio-critical lyrics Engrained are simply settle for daily life experiences and fun.
The guys stick to the chosen path and deliver more punk rock tunes. I recommend tracks like Devil's Don't Dream, Presentation In Life and Music Of The Night. The closer For All is a ballad which towards the end becomes a powerful balladesque track, quite a surprise. But it also shows that bassist Fenne is doing good at the punk rock tracks, but shows shortcomings.
Producer Tommy Newton worked with bands like Helloween and Guano Apes, he gave them a clear sound, perhaps a bit to clean for this kind of music... Anyway, Engrained live it's party time. With about 35 minutes the album is quite short, especially with high CD prices some might decide to spend money on another release... But fans of this genre are kinda used to short running times.


7 stars

Claudia Ehrhardt
 

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