Die Mannequin – Unicorn Steak

Unicorn Steak is compilation of Die Mannequin‘s two EPs – Slaughter Daughter and How To Kill – along with one new song called Hand In Hand and an old demo of Empty’s Promise. Now, a few months ago this would not have excited me. In fact, I would have looked at it with some sincere disapproval and slight annoyance. I already owned How To Kill and quite honestly I was not impressed with it. It had a few fleeting moments but I could rarely sit through the whole thing.

However, a few months ago I ended up seeing the Toronto three piece at a concert and they were great. Loud, obnoxious, heavily distorted, and completely chaotic, Die Mannequin put on one hell of a show and somehow the excitement from that evening’s performance has transplanted itself into Unicorn Steak; particularly in the four song portion that is comprised of the Slaughter Daughter EP.

Opening up with the raucous Do It Or Die, Die Mannequin immediately set the tone of the album. It’s fast, repetitive, messy and just like their live show, extremely chaotic. It sounds like Hole with vocalist Care Failure spitting out lyrics with intensity while being backed up by a wall of “woo-hoos.” The guitars are distorted and the drum beat energetic. Saved By Strangers sees Failure changing her vocal style a bit as it uses layered vocal editing effects and she goes from a eerie whisper to a strong grunge punk vibe for the chorus.On Upside Down Cross, Die Mannequin slows it down and really pull in on their Courtney Love/Hole influence and it works quite well. Lonely Of A Woman rounds off the first EP of the compilation and sounds like the melding of the two prior tracks with is slightly slower beat but driving bass drum/high hat combination.

The next four tracks came from the How To Kill EP and right away you can hear the difference in recording style. While it’s still clearly the same band, these MSTRKRFT-produced tracks don’t feature the same intense punch that the first EP did. Everything seems much more leveled in the mix and not as vibrant or clear and while the first four tracks were fairly distorted these ones are overly so which muffles the sound quality a bit. It really sounds like Death From A Above 1979 had a hand in the song writing process as Jesse Keeler’s touch is extremly prominent on it. Autumn Cannibalist isn’t a bad cut but the others pale in comparison to the rest of the CD.

The one song that stands out the most in the release is the closing song – and one of the two new songs on the CD – Hand In Hand. Not nearly as chaotic and spastic as the two EPs, Hand In Hand has a laid back beat and more of a indie-rock vibe as opposed to the grunge punk sound they had before. Still, it works and gives the listener an idea of what to expect in the future.

While not the strongest release to ever hit my CD player, Unicorn Steak has enough shining moments in it to warrant numerous replays. It’s chaotic, spastic, heavily distorted and it all adds up for a great grunge punk album; something I would not have expected to say six months ago.