Review of MINDVILE - Old Continent | Paragon Records / Satanath Records

MINDVILE's Old Continent comes with a pretty grim idea behind it. This is the first part of a planned five-album series about real cases of murder and human depravity, with each record dealing with a different continent. So no fantasy monsters this time. The monsters were already there.

Musically, we're somewhere between black and death metal, with the black metal side giving the whole thing its colder atmosphere. The band name Mayhem and Emperor as influences, and you can understand why. There is plenty of speed and blasting, but the guitars don't disappear completely underneath it all. They have a fairly nasty crunch to them, especially when the songs really start going for the throat.

“Bite by Bite” is probably the one I'd put on first if somebody asked what MINDVILE are about. It gets moving immediately and has enough going on in the riffs to make the speed more than just background violence. Vate's vocals have that high, cutting scream that fits the material perfectly. “Unholy Task” is more chaotic, with breakdowns thrown into the attack, while “The Evil Siren's Tongue” gives the guitars a little more room to dominate.

The guitar tone took me a moment. At first it comes across pretty fucking abrasive - crunchy, sharp and slightly unpleasant in a way that isn't necessarily going to win you over immediately. After a while, though, it starts to make sense. This isn't music that needs a shiny modern production job. The rougher edge actually suits the subject matter, especially when the riffs get buried in all that noise and start sounding properly hostile.

“Judge, Killer and Executioner” is another track that stuck with me, particularly because of the riff arriving around the two-minute point. That's a good sign on an album like this. Eight tracks of extreme metal can easily blur together, especially when most of the record is operating at high speed. Here there are moments that give individual songs their own identity.

The last part of the album is probably where the atmosphere becomes most important. “Craftman's Legacy” and “Cellarbound” are darker, heavier-feeling pieces, and putting them towards the end works. After all the frantic stuff earlier on, the album doesn't need another sprint to the finish. It can afford to get nastier.

The real question is whether the concept can survive five albums. That's a lot of serial killers, crimes and human misery to turn into songs. At some point the stories won't be enough to carry the record, and MINDVILE will have to keep coming up with riffs that make you want to hear the songs again even when you don't give a shit who the particular murderer was.

Old Continent gives them a decent starting point. The influences aren't exactly obscure, and nobody is going to hear this and think black/death metal has just been reinvented. There is enough aggression here, though, and more importantly, enough memorable guitar work to make the concept secondary to the actual music.

Not a bad first trip into MINDVILE. Just don't expect any nice people to be waiting at the other end.

https://mindvile.bandcamp.com/album/old-continent

Thanks to Grand Sounds PR.