Win copies of ‘Strands’, debut album from The Lions Mane

The Lions Mane are a progressive grunge band from Kilkenny that started as an online experiment. They’ve just released their debut album ‘Strands‘ and we have two copies to give away.

Alan Dawson, resident engineer with KilkennyMusic.com released tracks anonymously through MySpace just to see what would happen.

“I wanted to release music without it being important who was making it, music for music’s sake” says Alan. “The internet is the perfect way to do that.”

After demand led to a few live gigs in Kilkenny and Dublin, he then went back to the recording studio with drummer James O’ Brien and has emerged with new album ‘Strands’.

Drawing influences from a wide range of genres; stemming from the progressive sounds of 70’s bands like Yes and King Crimson to the roots reggae style of Steel Pulse, whilst combining the raw grunge of 90’s Seattle bands, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden, with the modern day sounds of The Mars Volta and Tool, The Lions Mane quickly garnered the respect of music fans in the online world, with it’s own style of melodic riffs interwoven with chunky guitars, layered vocals and strong rhythmic patterns.

After months of development; debut album ‘Strands’ is finally available to buy online for €10, exclusively through The Lions Mane’ official website.

With a running time just over 60 minutes; ‘Strands’ contains the four currently heard tracks on MySpace, along with seven new tracks: ‘Dead and Over’, ‘Kingdom’, ‘Smegma’ plus four new ‘DNA’ tracks.

Thanks to photographer, music head, director and actor extraorinaire, Ross Costigan, we’ve got two copies of the album to give away by download.

All you have to do is visit this page where you can preview and download all tracks, have a listen and let us know what your favourite track is. Winners will be chosen on Wednesday June 24.

Can’t say I’d have thought that this was my type of music but I’m listening to it here in the office and liking it.I can tell there’s a hell of a lot of work gone into this - and the perfection that Dawson has sought in the engineering is paying off.

Though due for release late last year, Dawson felt that at the mixing stage “… it could have sounded a lot better. I wanted it to sound like I had initially envisaged and there was no need to rush unnecessarily.”

“Some of the old tracks were re-recorded from scratch, adding new elements, and during this process the material grew into the 12 tracks that are now on the album. I’m happy that the overall sound is consistent and I’m pleased that I took the time to do it properly.”

Personal favourites so far are Leaf, The Dragons Breath and Kingdom. If you’re into grunge, this album could be right for you.