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OOC: Nothing fancy, I'm afraid, just wanted to get back into the swing of things. Mind Yes, it's finally here! Mind's self-titled 7th (or 6th... no, it's definitely 7th) album is about to drop. We can now officially give you the first track (or 3 tracks, depending on your view) of the album and it certainly does not disappoint. For those of you who doubted whether Jason Smith could make a sufficient return to metal... just give this a listen. Jason Smith had the following to say: "Yeah, sorry about the delay, but we've finally completed the album and, hopefully, you won't be disappointed. This is probably the most fun we've ever had with an album, there's been no bullshit or problems this time around; only music and friendship. Some may argue that it's the bullshit which makes the band, but this is, Shattered Fairytale aside, the only album that we've ever been really confident in. It takes the ferocity and youthfulness of Free Your Mind, the raw emotion of The Juggernaut, the slick stylings of The Aeronaut, the epic wall of sound technique we used on Shattered Fairytale, the experimentation of Dream Serpent and the intricacy of To Hold All. So, yes, our masterpiece. It is also a concept album that follows on from To Hold All and will offer the last chapter in the Paladin saga.
And very possibly the last chapter in the Mind saga as well... we're not splitting up, and we never will, but this will very likely be the last album of original material we're gonna make... we feel as if it says all that we want to say. It has a dark, murky beginning and evolves into pure happiness and joy, and that's the way we would want to end things. On a good note. As well as that, we're all growing up, most of us in our mid-late 20s and Aaron actually being 30... we can only be angry young men for a certain while. If we keep going on like this, the depressing nature of the lyrics will just bring everyone down a notch.
So, yeah, enjoy this album, because it really means a lot to us. Thank you all very much, lots of love, Mind :)"ALBUM ART COMING AS SOON AS I FIND IT AGAIN Track listing:1. Within Shadows Suite: Enrapturedi) Collision of the Planets ii) Mutual Understanding iii) Collision of the Rats 2. Safety in Numbers (Seraphim Theme)
3. The Importance of Being...
4. The Illusionist (In the March of Rain)
5. Face Your Chaos
6. Angular Cuts
7. Dawn of a New Day... (Luna’s Theme)
8. Within Shadows Suite: Exposurei) Lost Control ii) Diverging Upwards iii) Anthema and the Glass Soldiers iv) Existential Burden Within Shadows Suite: Enraptured (18:37) (Progressive Metal/ Experimental Metal)
i) Collision of the Planets (0:00-7:18)Crackling and buzzing starts the album off slowly for a short while, maybe 15 seconds, before what sounds like industrial machinery starts to enter the fray. The machinery really sets up a dark, moody atmosphere similar to what you would find on previous Mind albums. However, unlike all those albums, this one seems more natural and less dreamlike. This time, it seems like Mind are actually facing the horror of reality, the horror of waking up as opposed to the nightmare itself. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the extremely loud voice of Jason Smith cuts through screaming the first part of the song through a megaphone to a chorus of mechanic cheering and buzzing. Eventually, all the machinery implodes into a melody and a beat, with a spacey, chilled out synth line in the backing. The beat is quite funky and the ranting continues over it to create a nice, freaky contrast. It is reminiscent of a space station in a dictatorship. This continues for a minute or so until it reaches “how things have turned for the worse”, which is said in a slow, pained voice, with a tiny bit of demonic laughter. This line is said in solidarity; there is no backing whatsoever, just Jason’s fucked up, creepy tones. Straight after this, it bursts into a crazily complicated avant-garde metal riff reminiscent of Meshuggah on lead guitar, which some djent shredding on rhythm, and the bass playing a spacey, proggy rock line. The drums are yet to come in. After a few seconds of polyrhythms and a couple of hi-hat taps, the blastbeats from the drums burst in ferociously and the whole song starts to develop, with the lead guitar taking on a more melodic, laid back new prog approach, with post-hardcore influences as opposed to avant-garde. It is similar to the bassline in melody, although slightly heavier and more complicated. This goes on for a short while, with vocoded, gentle Jason Smith lines for the second verse in the song, making it sound more dreamlike and spacey again. It sounds a little like a heavier Oceansize or Porcupine Tree. After a few minutes of this, including a dual solo between the reverby, echoey Jason Smith’s guitar and the neo-classical metal of Aaron, things boil down into a complicated fusion jazz riff on the both the guitars, orchestral segments and a couple of tom beats as percussion, making it sound more jazzy and less metal than it was initially. Eventually, the complicated drums come back in as well as an Abasi-esque guitar solo from Jason, before he then sings the rest of the part in a high voice to complete this segment of Within Shadows. Narcissistic narcissisms of the foolish minds vision distort the eyes,
Describing the blind, you fool, you lie...
Mirrors broken shrouding the faces of those who passed,
At last, diverge fast from bloodied carts and...
These wheels that turned and burned and yearned...
For something deeper, a treasure that never reared its ugly head,
Never for better, a letter received torn at the hinges,
Paragraph after paragraph of silent shouting,
How things have turned for the worst...
Narcissistic...
Narcissisms...
Quickly pollute your final decision...
A conclusion... delusion...
Confusion.
The mind bleeds in seeds that are planted,
Grow into trees of corpses,
The fruit ripe for the burial,
I’ll kill you all...
I’m going to kill you all. ii) Mutual Understanding (7:18-13:54)After the last note of Collision of the Planets, the powerful jazz metal segment, it then boils down into laid back electronic beats in a pulsing rhythm, setting you up for something big. Amongst all the synth ambience and the chilled vibes now emerging, an acoustic guitar melody breaks through, quite complicated, but much more emotional and heartfelt than Planets. In fact, it is a slight throwback to the main melody of To Hold All, except faster and with a few more little added segments in to make sure it wasn’t completely identical. Eventually, the entire ambience fades out leaving the acoustic guitar and Jason singing in a low, brooding voice. He sings the first part in a relatively normal voice, but the second verse consists of double tracked vocals and an even more emotional melody on the guitar, accompanied by a slightly higher pitch of singing. After this verse, the acoustic keeps strumming until it seemingly turns into electric and once it does so, a huge wall of sound bursts out from nowhere and a nice, yet very complicated jazz metal riff once again takes centre stage of the song, which is very heavy, but still melodic. In the background, horn segments and Jason’s Theremins can be heard, amongst other things all contributing to the massive sound of the band. Jason then proceeds to sing the tune with reverb effects on his voice for this part. At times, his voice can reach epic highs, such as an almost impossible Halford-esque A#5 to a very low, brooding G#2 in a matter of seconds. Once this verse is finished, everything breaks down into madness, with a rising crescendo of technical guitars, similar to a Mars Volta breakdown, a crazy flurry of drums, off beat basslines, reversed piano parts etc. This goes on for a couple of minutes, until it bursts into a quiet bluesy solo, with only the guitar, the drums and the eerie, high falsetto of Jason appearing, vocalising similar to The Great Gig in the Sky. Jason, when he puts his mind to it, can sound scarily like a girl. He then proceeds to sing the rest of the song in a similarly high pitch, which may remind one a little of Darroh Sudderth of Fair to Midland. This part of the song ends with a steady, heavy, relatively slow drum beat starting and leading out into the next song. Calm your eyes...
It must be harder to just pretend that you’re happy.
This is gonna be the end of all that you know.
A new chapter, almost...
Is this all we know?
Is this all we are?
Through all the motifs, and all the motives...
Left arm triggers the right blade in your ear.
And let’s see what happens once the medicine wears off...
You move too fast for me...
I open my eyes, but I can’t see...
I can’t see anything.
You know me for my mistake,
I should resolve,
I should resolve,
I should resolve... iii) Collision of the Rats (13:54-18:37)The drum beat speeds up into a mental solo, a flurry of rolls and licks that toss and turn frequently. After about 10 seconds, a low-tuned, heavy, polyrhythmic djent riff comes into play. It is truly heavy-as-fuck, amongst the heaviest that Mind have ever conceived. The bass from Harry that accompanies it is equally as brutal and this should please the old fans of Mind. Jason screams the lyrics viciously over the top of the riff in his traditional banshee voice, with screams reaching up to an astronomical B6 and F7 at certain points, which, although presumably painful to do, is also extremely impressive. Seriously, how the fuck did he survive that? After this initial verse of screaming, it goes into a faster, less complicated, but equally as heavy djent riff. The vocals at this point are gang shouting at quite a low pitch and there is a general feel of chaos, as if everything has come crashing back down to reality. Some parts of this song make it sound as if it could be on The Juggernaut or, possibly, Free Your Mind, except Jason’s voice here is highly refined and trained. After this, the lead guitar goes onto an extended note and the drums simplify to one continuous beat as Aaron takes his turn to create a new riff, a Machine Head-esque neo-classical pummeller. After a short while of this, Gojira-esque blastbeats from the drum and heavy shredding from Jason reappear in the melancholic melody to give it a massive, epic feel, as well as choirs starting to be introduced slightly in the background. Eventually, this riff turns into a speed metal song and Aaron and Jason have another guitar battle, except they both intertwine their solos, giving the band a true chemistry and you can tell that, despite the dark sounds, that the band are working extremely well as one collective unit, no longer just Jason controlling everything. After this solo, it goes into a speed metal riff and Jason sings in a relatively low voice slightly reminiscent of James Hetfield. A couple of “woah-oh-oh”s can be heard in the background at this point. The speed metal riff continues and continues until all of the instruments fade out into violins playing frantically and then just stopping suddenly into absolute, definitive silence. I’ll torch you... burn you...
Without comfort, no regrets...
Take this blood soaked hand in yours,
Feel it bubble through the veins...
The depth of your desire,
Is sum to the arrogance of the liar.
REPEAT AFTER ME!
NARCISSISTIC!
NARCISSISMS!
EGO!
REGRET!
PAIN!
SUFFERING!
...You bleed stitches from the mouth...
Yet you are slit at the throat.
I’m going to kill you. |
