If you don’t live in New Jersey, it probably doesn’t make any sense to you how different the top half is from the bottom. The growth of suburban culture in the last century has essentially divided the northern and southern parts of the state, so that each is more aligned with the major urban center to which it’s closest — north being NYC and south being Philly — resulting in a pretty clear divide from one to the other. Aside from baseball fandom, this has numerous other cultural applications. For example, the southern part of the state has a much stronger music scene.

At least as far as this site’s concerned, that’s partially due to the whole Red Bank group of bands who first came up in the ’90s: Monster Magnet, Core, Godspeed and The Atomic Bitchwax. The scene they fostered has splintered, grown and shifted, but never completely gone away. Even a new band like The Ominous Order of Filthy Mongrels, who hail from Toms River, some 40 minutes further south, have a connection to it, with guitarist Mike Schwiegert having formerly been in Lord Sterling with Monster Magnet‘s Jim Baglino. It’s a small world, and even smaller when you’re only dealing with three counties’ worth of distance.

But if The Ominous Order of Filthy Mongrels are anything, they’re most definitely not Lord Sterling. Schwiegert delves into his Jersey punk/hardcore roots and comes out with a sonic concoction both fast and heavy, leaving frontman Kevin LeBlanc (ex-A Day of Pigs) no choice but to be as abrasive as possible, which just happens to be his specialty. The connection between the two might be tattooing, since they’re both artists, but that’s conjecture. Sometimes people just end up in a band together.

The three tracks The Ominous Order of Filthy Mongrels have posted on their MySpace page combine memorable riffing with an aggressive bent and stylized groove. “Hoof and Ash” might be the most directly punk, but it’s the kind of punk Disfear and Coliseum play, not the kind you see on the tv. In any case, the song is immediate and vitriolic, Schwiegert and fellow guitarist Dave Anderson leading the way for LeBlanc, bassist/vocalist Mike Castlebury and drummer Brian Zupko to keep up. They do and everyone lives angrily ever after. Nasty stuff.

They’re calling their first release Bastard Demo, and it’s available through Chainsaw Safety Records, so if MySpace quality just doesn’t do it for you and you don’t live close enough to hit up one of their shows, that’s how you get it. If you do live close enough, however, I’d suggest seeing it in person, since having been exposed to the members’ prior bands (Lord Sterling, A Day of Pigs, Black Mamba, etc.), I can say with confidence The Ominous Order of Filthy Mongrels have the capacity to destroy whatever’s laid before them. Indeed, that could be you. Most definitely on the radar.

Tags: New Jersey, The Ominous Order of Filthy Mongrels, Unsigned bands

This entry was posted on Friday, April 9th, 2010 at 10:47 am and is filed under On the Radar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.