Swedish melodic prog rock/metal band Mind's Eye was put on hold after their third and last album A Work of Art released on German label Rising Sun Records in 2002. They were a great band playing a mix of melodic rock, AOR, 70's prog, and 80's metal in a style that could be likened to Rush, Queensryche, Journey, and many others.
Now they are back. This is their reissued version of A Work of Art through their new label Lion Music. The songs are not remixed or anything though, the CD sounds exactly as the original version, but contains two bonus tracks, one of them being their highly acclaimed cover of Queensryche's "I Will Remember", a song they originally recorded for a Ryche tribute album titled Warning: Minds of Raging Empires back in 2000. Those who haven't heard any Mind's Eye songs before are going to discover a 75-minute disc that contains ambitious songs punctuated with melodic riffs, huge vocal harmonies, excellent arrangement, and good songwriting. The original album also has a theme to it, as some of the songs are only 1-minute long and filled with spoken passages, car accidents, someone pleading for his life, etc. "Room With a View" is one of these cuts, as it begins with what seems to be a car crash (a bit like the one on Ayreon's The Human Equation), then an ambulance arrives to help the victim. The nice piano melody begins to take the lead as vocalist Andreas Novak duets briefly with a female singer. Albeit short, it's a very beautiful song.
"Courage Within" has a classic rock song feel to it and stands out with its neat arrangement and catchy vocal harmony. This would be right up there with the likes of Journey and Toto actually. The musicianship is impressive as well. Fredrik Grunberger is definitely from the Shawn Lane meets Neal Schon school of 80's rock and his tapping lick on this song is simply gorgeous. The songs are generally midtempo-paced, laced by nifty acoustic guitars and vivid keyboard lines that are almost AOR-ish in style. The songs are filled with multi-chorus vocal melodies as on "Eye for an Eye", a great piece with a bass intro and melodic guitar. The guitarist is particularly impressive on the more proggy numbers "The Shape of Salvation" and "Hands of Time". Both songs have a solid main riff and are filled with interesting synth textures, even some electronic elements, and jazzy interplay.
Hopefully Lion Music will get Mind's Eye the attention that has escaped them all these years, and I already look forward to their new disc Walking on H2O.
Track Listing
- Prologue: Lullaby
- Courage Within
- Moment of Honor
- Roll the Dice
- Room With a View
- Shallow Water
- My Kindred Soul
- Shape of Salvation
- These Open Arms
- Eye for an Eye
- Hands of Time
- Your World
- Epilogue: Domino
- I Will Remember (bonus)
- End of the Line (bonus)
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