Mindscar: Kill The King

You never knew they'd been away, did you? But seemingly Mindscar reformed in 2013, then dropped their debut Kill The King in 2015. Should you care? Well if the metal of death mixed with technical progressive metal has the juices trickling down your inner thighs, then possibly yes, for that's what you'll find here. Admittedly some of that is bludgeoned out through guitar wankery and even if you're a committed death-shred lover, there's little denying that a couple of the lead bursts sound like they've been shipped in wholesale from a different album. However when Mindscar can turn their hand to the cross genre maelstrom of "Kill The King", then the lesser moments can be over looked.

Supposedly Matt Heafy of Trivium was in an early incarnation of the band (pre-reformation we can only presume), hence he turns up here. Although as the old song goes, 'don't know where, don't know when' – well OK we do because the booklet tells us, but his clean vocal contributions to "Asmodeus", "Ashes Made Of Heaven" and "Beneath All The Broken Bones" do feel more for the sake of it (and so Mindscar can mention the name Trivium), than for creating any particular focal point. Still friends in high places never hurt and if they bring the brutality of "Deathmask" or bombardment of drums and squealing guitars of "Forever Consumes You" more notice, then we shouldn't be too churlish. A surprise choice to close the album out arrives in a cover of the Nail Inch Nails track "Mr Self Destruct", and just like the Johnny Cash take on "Hurt", which still raises the hairs on the neck, the underrated songwriting skills of Trent Reznor are again illustrated by how easily a song originally written in a style a million miles removed from the one presented here still works wonders. Admittedly Mindscar do stay closer to the original in structure than initially suspected, but still, I doubt Trent envisioned this song being re-portrayed as a Technical Death steamroller when he wrote it. Good job!

Full time throat shredder Richie Brown proves a revelation, his angst ridden attack perfect for the anger fuelled but pinpoint accurate assault this band create, although it's hard to argue that it isn't his guitar playing (which is thankfully (just) kept in check most of the time) and the stunning percussive power of Mike Radford that doesn't stand tallest on this interesting debut. As first impressions go, Kill The King makes the sort that lasts and mostly, for all the right reasons.

Track Listing
1. Asmodeus
2. The Irreversible
3. Kill the King
4. God's Creation
5. DeathMask
6. Descending Straight to Hell
7. Ashes Made of Heaven
8. Beneath All the Broken Bones
9. Forever Consumes You
10. Insatiate
11. Mr Self Destruct

Added: January 24th 2016
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Mindscar on BandCamp
Hits: 1601
Language: english

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