If you’ve never heard of Man With A Mission then the next few months may be set to change that in a big way. Appearing on beers adverts and selling over 200,000 albums in the first week alone of their last album in their native Japan, the half man/half wolf (yeah, you heard) band are set to take on the rest of the planet with this, their first global release. So is this set to be another fairy tale in the vein of the undeniable Baby Metal or just another hype that doesn’t have the legs? Based on the contents of ‘Dead End In Tokyo’ it feels very much like the former in a big way.
With four albums already under their belts back home, you can’t deny that the band know their way around writing a huge song. The thing is that some of the tracks nestled within the folds of this excellent EP are so good, you can’t believe that it has taken this long for the band to break on foreign shores.
With sprinklings of electronica and scratches of DJ decks coating huge rock choruses, along with brain bothering hooks with a portion of pop sensibility on the side for good measure, tunes such as the bombastic ‘Dead End In Tokyo’ and righteous grooves of ‘Brave It Out’ make this much more than just an enjoyable listen.
Pull away all the gimmicks and the glitter and what you have with Man With A Mission is a band that has some absolutely brilliant songwriting hiding up their sleeves. Of course, in a lot of cases the fact that they have massive wolf heads resting on their shoulders will take centre stage, but with their mix of infectious rock and genre-bending experimentation, there may be a lot more life in this beast than you may have originally thought.
3.5/5
‘Dead End In Tokyo EP (European Edition)’ by Man With A Mission is out now on Century Media.
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Words by Jack Rogers (@JackMRog)
