Mongrel (The Number Twelve Looks Like You album)

Sound and style

Singer Jesse Korman, describing the album, has stated:

"We don't want to sound like anybody else. We stepped it up to the point where we've killed everything we've ever done previously, while a lot of bands that started out heavier have seemed to be going more melodic and easier on crowds — at least that's the trend. It seems to be the path a lot of these heavy bands are going these days, and we didn't want our fans to be like, 'Oh no, it's all just going to be melodic.' We wanted to make sure we really kicked some ass [on Mongrel]. I don't know where we fit in, genre-wise, but this record's definitely something you've never heard before. On top of being incredibly heavy, there's stuff in there that's just the catchiest stuff I've heard in so long."

In a lead-up to the album's release a number of cryptic postings concerning the album were found on the internet by fans of the band. These included a video clip featuring a snippet of "Sleeping With The Fishes, See?" and three websites, displaying lyrics to "Grandfather" and "Sleeping With The Fishes, See?" as well as album artwork.

Album name

According to Jesse Korman, in an interview with MTV, "the whole theme behind the album is mongrel...you can't really define what a 'mongrel' is — it's just a crazy mutt — and all of our songs are just all over the place. We wanted this album to be just complete chaos, with no direction at all." Korman further states that "While there's no thematic link between the Mongrel and the LP artwork...the cover features a humanoid creature that suffers from schizophrenia and [this creature] embodies the unruliness of the music."

Track listing

All songs written by Jesse Korman, Justin Pedrick and Jon Karel.

Personnel