Austin, Texas has a vibrant music scene, the home of South by Southwest – an annual film and music festival that for decades has attracted worldwide buzz for its industry impact. It’s also home to this heavy metal quintet Mean Mistreater – who released their debut album Razor Wire independently in 2023 before being picked up by Dying Victims Productions for an international push. Attracting a decent buzz for the band’s penchant to take influences across the classic metal meets 80s retro hard rock sound that artists like Warlock, Chastain, and early W.A.S.P. garnered notice during 1983-1987, Do Or Die is the second album that strives to keep the train churning along smoothly.
On first glance, there’s nothing extraneous regarding an eight-song record that gets in attack mode to finish its mission in a scant twenty-six minutes and forty seconds. This is a case of passionate riffs, fierce vocal melodies, support from a locked and loaded rhythm section, all wrapped into a series of anthems or speedier affairs that will have you screaming in the aisles or losing your mind. The vocals of Janiece Gonzalez have a street-level toughness that works next to the twin guitar assault of Alex Wein and Quinten Lawson. She can hit those bird call notes a la Leather Leone in the early Maiden-esque march-oriented “Walk with Fire” yet twist that party charm on ten for follow-up title track. Combining influences across early US metal and the NWOBHM/European scenes, this is lean, mean stuff that revels in its live for the movement philosophies – forgetting about your job/personal worries of the day and joining in these celebratory festivities. Jeff Henson (Spirit Adrift) has that recording touch that Mean Mistreater deserves – authentic yet warm, where the snare crackles, cymbal hits reverberate, and the guitar tones pulsate as traditional metal should sound, beyond the classic fade out technique that makes “Three of Swords” a back half favorite.
Do or Die won’t reinvent the wheel (but what does these days)? As a record though it reminds people that for every experimental act who feel the need to create multiple styles smashed together for their sound, there’s something endearing about a pure heavy metal act like Mean Mistreater that just kick your teeth in song after song, hook after hook.