So you have a rock album in your hands – or maybe just in your headphones because you know you are going to go loud with it – and it contains tracks like “Rock N Roll Will Never Die”, “Fuck That Shit” and “There is No God”. You would have a conventional and solidly macho rock album in your hands, wouldn’t you?
Not this time you wouldn’t. By some strange confluence of the stars, German band Liquid Meat have, with their album “In Meat We Trust” created something that stands out from the crowd and, remarkably, you can detect every cliché and influence that a good rock band might expect to have absorbed these days yet Liquid Meat still manage to sound different. You can’t deny the theatrical intent of Freddie Mack’s vocal style, for example, but he always seems to find just the right approach to push the substantially smarter than average lyrics onwards and outwards without ever needing to go over the top. Add in the distinctly fluid and flexible accompaniment provided by Manu Holmer and Max Horch that allows this band to stroll confidently between rock, metal and punk genres and it’s enough to cause an attack of reviewer enthusiasm.
The songs have something for everybody who has ever worn a leather jacket and suffered an unfortunate haircut. There’s the obliquely commercial “Road House” to keep metal fans happy. “Fuck That Shit” will suit meat eating lovers of post punk irony while “Punch The Clock” would entice even a beard scratching urban intellectual and yet, or should that be yet again, Liquid Meat rarely need to stray outside the bounds of genre conventionality.
It’s not often that a band produces an album that is for someone and everyone but Liquid Meat have done just that. My hat goes off to them.