The Filth Hounds

The Filth Hounds: Hair of the Hound?

Pure Steel Records; October 26th 2018

The Filth Hounds (U.K.) send a message to rock fans over all the world. Their band name comes from Filth Hounds of Hades, the debut album from 1982 from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal band Tank, whose bassist/vocalist Algy Ward was in the legendary punk band The Damned. Said Tank album was produced by Motörhead guitarist Eddie Clarke. Seeing that Motörhead’s Lemmy was a guest on The Damned’s classic album Machine Gun Etiquette (1979), Ward and Motörhead already knew each other before Tank was formed. By the way, German thrash legends Sodom have covered Tank on more than one occasion on studio albums, and thereby introduced the band to fans of the German act and of thrash in general.

This 2018 album is called Hair of the Hound? and the expression “hair of the dog” refers to a drink, as you can see on the cover of the album. Moreover, it cannot be a coincidence that the album name is similar to the famous 1975 heavy rock album Hair of the Dog by the legendary band Nazareth (U.K.). Nazareth songs are played on the radio and it is probable that any listener of a classic/hard/heavy rock and metal radio station has heard Nazareth. Many musicians have covered Nazareth songs, including famous acts like the U.S. band Guns n' Roses, and Metal Church, Iron Savior, Artillery, Diamond Head, and others (including covers of Nazareth’s heavy rock version of a Joni Mitchell song).

This brings us to The Filth Hounds themselves. British. Traditional. Heavy. Metal. They are going to give it to you straight. The album sounds down-to-earth honest, like they want you to hear everything, like you are right there in their jam space in the garage. It could be a British thing. Lots of old British bands have this work ethic: make sure that your recording is something that you yourself played. Do not lie. Do not cheat. What you hear is what the band plays. Record what you play. If you didn't play it, then what's the point of putting it on the recording? If it's a computer program that we are hearing, then who are you trying to fool here?

The Filth Hounds is a humble band. Essentially, they sound like an old heavy metal band that you might catch down at the pub on a weekend, giving it all that they got, rocking away, happy to be playing the music that they love. The songs vary somewhere between classic rock and heavy metal. The songs will cure that hangover you get from listening to robotic and computerized rock music. It’s reliable old-time-style heavy metal for those times when you want to hear a band getting down to boogie and rock and roll in an unpretentious way. Rock and roll, friends.

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