“The Monster Within” is the title of the brand new full-length by Montreal psychobilly band The Brains. The album features tight rhythms paired with smooth rockabilly vocals and choppy guitar parts. Psychobilly is not for every listener, but for those who are in to this kind of thing, this is certainly a good record.
It is always interesting to see where a band takes their sound in a genre that combines different styles of music. The Brains have lyrics that could fit into different genres, but when paired with singer Rene De La Muerte’s vocals, you see that they were written for rockabilly with a dark edge. The track “Stay Back” warns us “Stay back baby, I’m the wrong one, you know I ain’t no good for you, I got a bad reputation I’m a wild one, I ain’t the one to make your dreams come true”. This is the stand out track on the album, in my opinion. Listeners can expect to feel urges to move (as listeners of this genre usually want to) in crowds. “Give It All” describes exactly what the band did on that track, including their guitar licks, heavy drums and gang vocals in just the right places. While “Stay Back” shows us that the band is capable of writing deep lyrics, “Give It All” shows that the band is capable of holding it down on the musical front.
“The Monster Within” is the band’s fourth album, and if the albums preceding it are anything like this, then I would say that the band has earned its place among notable psychobilly acts such as Batmobile and Blood Sucking Zombies from Outer Space.