MOTHER VULTURE – MONSTER CRUNCH

We were extremely happy here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today to be introduced to the music of the Bristol (UK) band, Mother Vulture. Their latest single, Monster Crunch has just been released, ahead of their forthcoming debut album, Mother Knows Best (due out on November 25, 2022).

We’d not heard of Mother Vulture before, but it is clear that this is a band that mean business and who are making some serious waves on the UK scene. Looking at their tour dates, they’re already playing ticketed shows – this is a wonderful sign that big things are on the horizon.

Monster Crunch starts with an electric guitar, made to sound like a motorbike starting up. Reminiscent of Motley Crue’s, Kickstart My Heart, the song then progresses quickly into the full band sound, and the comparisons to Motley Crue are even more evident.

The band describe themselves as being within the punk genre, but this song has more to it than that. Punk can be messy and a little bit “shouty” at times, with a fairly relaxed attitude towards quality. Mother Vulture are none of these things. This is an exceptionally tight band whose musicianship is absolutely astounding. The energy provided by the drummer alone is enough to explain why this song is only just over 2 minutes long. We were exhausted just listening to it!!

The layered vocals are a nice touch and the change-up of rhythms of the guitars in that all-important second verse makes this a song that grabs your attention for every single one of the 2 minutes and 17 seconds. The guitars are tight and consistent and the drum fills are astounding. Vocally reminding us in a couple of places of Wolfmother this is a band that has all the elements needed to hit the big time.

We love the rise and fall in the track – there’s a superb moment of just harmony vocals before leading to an instrumental section with a repeated guitar riff to the end of the song.

This may be “punk” but it’s punk played by world-class musicians. And what we like even more than that is that they don’t take themselves too seriously (take a look at their promo shot…!)

This two-minute song has all the elements of an over-the-top theatrical rock opera. The band even describe one section of the song as completely derailing into a Godzilla-Esque monster attack. If that doesn’t intrigue you then we can’t help you!

Everything about this song screams pure quality. The songwriting, arrangement, performance and production are faultless. It is rare for us to hear something this expertly put together from a band who are only on their debut album. This is truly exciting stuff and a band that we’ll be watching closely from here on in.