by Mark Snelson
The Mess Hall return with a second album ‘Devil’s Elbow’ which was produced by Gerling’s Burke Reid. For the unitiated The Mess Hall is a noisy little Sydney based two piece consisting of Jed Curzel on guitar/vocals and Cec Condon on drums.
The album was made over a fairly harrowing time for Kurzel whose father passed away, his aunty committed suicide and his dog also died. Whilst this is very tragic, I have always believed that artists work best in hard times and this spills out onto Devil’s Elbow.
The thing that stands out on Devil’s Elbow is how much depth, diversity and maturity there is in the songwriting here. Previously The Mess Hall were in danger of becoming a one trick pony with only one sound – a stomping swampy blues rock, which was great but it was a sound that might have turned stale should they have revisited it for another full length release.
Devil’s Elbow opens with a corker of a track ‘Keep Walking’, with heavy riffing more akin to stoner rock than the swampy blues most would remember The Mess Hall for. ‘City of Roses’ is the closest this album gets to their roots with its rawkus riffs, punchy drums and wailing vocals. They wander into quieter alt-country territory with ‘Load Left’, ‘Lorelei’ and ‘Betty’. One of the standouts of this release is ‘Cookie’, a song that creeps along with a repetitive groove and soft vocals before launching into an aural explosion that will no doubt become a live favourite. The album ends with another surprise, a ballad titled ‘Be Not A Man’ that has an Irish sing-along feel to it when it kicks in.
Devil’s Elbow may disappoint fans expecting another full throttle blues rock assault but those willing to give it a chance will be rewarded with an album of far more depth than anyone could have expected from The Mess Hall.
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