Leafhound is one of those names, the ones cited by the cognoscenti as a major influence, but who maybe never got the recognition at the time. Their original album, ‘Grower Of Mushrooms’, is a heady mix of hard rock, psychedelica, stoner rock & Blues, still potent today and you can clearly hear the bands that they influenced running through the music – no Leafhound maybe the course of hard rock through the seventies and eighties would be very different. Their second album ‘Unleashed’ came 37 years after the first(!), a little more refined than ‘Grower…’ but still an effective piece of hard rock and psych. Now, a mere 18 years later, we have the new album ‘Once Bitten’. Prolific the band isn’t but nevertheless, always worth a listen to.
The current lineup is Pete French – vocals, Luke Rayner – guitar, Peter Herbert – bass and Dominic French – drums and they make an excellent noise. Pete French’s vocals are as strong as ever. Even though he is British he has a strongly American accent and this colours the music quite heavily. Luke Rayner lays down some serious riffs along with power chords and searing solos, the engine room of Peter Herbert and Dominic French is all about furious breaks and pounding basslines. Pete French either wrote the songs or collaborated with members of the band and others and they really are good rock radio offerings. There are a few stand out tracks – ‘Hold Back The Night’ is a great workout for French’s vocals and has a funky backline, ‘Chain Gang’ is just great rock and ‘Burn The House Down’ is a stunning opener that lays bare all that is best about the band.
There is nothing ‘new’ about what Leafhound do, but you have to consider that they were doing this form of (very) heavy rock before almost any of the American acts and contemporaries of bands like Deep Purple and The Groundhogs and they do sound fresh, powerful and absolutely committed to the art. Truth be told, they are a hell of a lot of fun to listen to and had me careering around the room.
