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MINDFLAIR "Stagnation" Cd

  (Bones Brigade Records - BB025)
Release date: 2005
Running time:
27:11

Review:
New, second (I think) album by Mindflair (Germany) here... This is very incisive grindcore with touches of death metal and sometimes crust. Clearly, the main influence here must be Agathocles. The key elements here are basic but very violent, in-your-face riffage, fast, swift, grinding drumming and dual shrieking/roaring vocals. I usually don't dig screaming vocals too much but the vocalist does a great job here, the vocal work on this one is pretty gripping and very abrasive. This is not a perfect album, I feel songs here sometimes lack a little momentum, perhaps because of the sound production... It is nice and clean and the great thing about it is that all the riffs are brought out very distinctively... Still, I honestly think the album would have benefitted from some additional rawness, saturation and distortion... This is already really pretty awesome as it is though and I'm nitpicking but I honestly really liked this cd, the band puts tons of rage into their stuff and the agressivity of the whole thing feels real... The guitar riffing is kind of obsessive and spirally; I mean it seems to go in circles at times in a kind of early Morbid Angel way... Anyhow, I found myself really genuinely enjoying this one, some of this stuff is really catchy and intense and well, this is just sweet stuff, I honestly don't remember their earlier cd to be as catchy as this new one... I'm not such fan a big of the whole cd layout though, it just looks like a big blob gone through a photoshop texture filter... But hey, it's the music that counts, right?! And the music here kicks quite a lot of ass!

Tracks: 1)Affirmation (2:18) 2)No Lyrics (0:56) 3)Stagnation (2:23) 4)Superstar Construction KIT (1:39) 5)Chosen Unit (1:45) 6)101 (1:33) 7)Mindflare (1:42) 8)The Hauch Of Aggression (1:56) 9)Human Tapedeck (2:12) 10)The Fairy Tale Of Intelligence (1:19) 11)Excess To Nothing (1:47) 12)Positive Thought Treatment (1:28) 13)Seduced To Purity (1:32) 14)Braindwash Method (4:41)

Label: www.bonesbrigaderecords.com

 

   
MINDFLAIR "Green Bakery" Cd

 

(Bones Brigade )
Release date:
2002
Running time : 27:06

Review:
This kicks quite alot of ass... Grindcore with a pronounced crust/hardcore side to it (mincecore if you will...), a crossover between Agathocles at their best ("Razor Sharp Daggers") and late Brutal Truth. These guys put alot of energy into their stuff and have the grindy chemistry thing working pretty well. The sound is loud and clear, you've got well-rounded tracks, catchy basic grind & crust riffs, punchy, fast & skilful drumming, furious screams and shouts... Excellent stuff overall. Although the band sometimes lack focus and seem to try progressive things à la Brutal Truth, but it doesn't really work here and in my humble opinion, they should just stick to grind, which they're very good at by the way.
Now, most of the lyrics have some kind of polite heartfelt social messages and stuff... Some of it comes off as pretty simplistic, corny, weird pot-head kind of stuff, the rest is just plain dumb, pointless and unintentionally hilarious (the song about... parking tickets (!!!) springs to mind... there's even a song about erm... being spontaneous and partying...) In the middle of all this, there's also an anti-abortion song, blah! I hate anti-abortion songs. I'm all for socio-political lyrics, some bands like Agathocles or Dropdead can sometimes write thought provoking things or at least provocative things, but most of the lyrics here are just really weird and with no point whatsoever.
Anyhow, it's still a very good grind album to me, for the most part extremely catchy, tight, crushing, aggressive and with a more than decent sound production... Recommended then.

Tracks: 1)No ideas 2)Pampered grumbler 3)Garbage 4)Only for yourself 5)Conditioned life 6)Political self service 7)No reason, no fun 8)Puberty conditioned murder career 9)Green bakery 10)Ticket terror 11)Despite of existence 12)Blurred personality 13)Kuehle frische milch 14)Sparetime sheriffs 15)Fashion destitude

Label Contact: BONES BRIGADE
B.P.31
62140 HESDIN - FRANCE

Fax:00 333 21 90 39 55 - Ph:00 333 21 86 72 91

Website: www.bonesbrigaderecords.com/
Email: bonesbrign@aol.com

 

   

RUNNING GUTS/MINDLAIR Split Cd

 

(Bones Brigade)
Release date: 1999

Running Guts Review:
After two brilliant, amazing, original & noisy demos, the frenchy Running Guts are back for even more exquisite acoustic grinding desintegration! Now, they're like a real band, with a complete 3-piece line-up (always with Nicolas of Bones Brigade team). On this cd, they plainly turned into a far more straightforward, violent form of grindcore. Experimental parts have nearly completely been removed. Vocals are still very sick, but this time, they're totally raw, saturating, vomit-spewing, nauseous or screamy... harmonized effects seem to be abandonned there... Anyway, programmed drums always assure fastness and total annihilation!!! Guitars & bass are unbearably non-melodic & noisy! All in all, this is some of the most infernal ear-aggression on planet earth. The whole thing is played with lovely grindy derision, and funny good ideas are numbrous... Those who thought the second demo was too boring should not be disappointed this time! 5 fast and short tracks... enough to rip your arse into pieces! 
Tracks: 1)Alive? 2)Running guts n.1 3)Toto at the market 4)No smoking in the WC 5)Barbeuck

 Mindflair Review: This is the first material I hear from this german band, Mindflair, and I must say I'm very impressed! This begins with trashy animation TV-serie South Park generic music... and then the engine's cranked for 4 incredible tracks in pure brutal grindcore style! The sound is good, the musicians seem very skilful, songs are fast(&midtempo), swift & grindy as hell! Vocals range from rude & hideously raw bestial growls (often low pitched with judicious gut-wrenching effects) to high screamy & fucking insane shrieks! So, here we have one more very interesting grind band! A weird cover artwork too... This split single cd has a 17 minutes running time! 17 minutes of sheer audio carnage! 
Tracks:
 6)Miracle ingredient 7)Garbage 8)Mass-stultification 9)Purity of breeding

 

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