What happens next is not untypical for grindcore, at least not in this household. While my wife is reading a book outside, I'm being dragged into a cesspool intense misanthropic filth, from Kaiserslautern (Germany) this time. I'm reminded of an old split with Melt Banana and Discordance Axis. Especially the second on comes to mind when I listen to songs like 'Black Frost', 'Unkrautbekämpfung' or 'Ideal Of Stupidity'. So suddenly I am complete awake and fiercely banging my head. Morning gymnastics for the metalhead.
Mindflair claims to be a grindcore band, so they incorporate elements from death metal, crust and hardcore punk, along with some minor elements from black metal (blast-beats ahoy). For the majority of the album, the songs blast through my speakers at high velocity and an intense speed. Needless to say the none of the thirteen songs lasts for over three minutes. Yet, they do contain a pretty large amount of lyrics. I've been trying to follow them on the booklet but that's quite impossible.
If I have to compare Mindflair to other bands, I guess a blend of Brutal Truth, Discordance Axis and Regurgitate comes pretty close. High speed death metal riffs, blasting drums and glaring screams are the basic ingredients for this brutal assault. Here and there some slower passages appear but they never last very long. They do bring exactly the right amount of variation to keep this twenty five minute kick to the face interesting. The vocals to very from fierce screams, over guttural growls to brutal clean punk voices.
Mindflair is a band with quite an impressive list of albums, e.p.'s and splits which makes me wonder how that manage to write so many songs without getting tired of it. Songs like 'Greed' seem to show why. This song is slower and drives on some stunning riffs. If anything, it proves that there's some decent musicians on this band who clearly know what they are doing. So it's no wonder they've been a solid force in the grindcore underground.
So there you have it, another excellent grindcore album that indeed woke me up today. Of course, music like this is mainly meant for the stage. I can clearly see an outrageous audience going berzerk on songs like 'Flow' and 'Unlearned', especially with the intense hyper-speed drums and immense amount of energy they breathe. If you're into grindcore or extreme death metal, go ahead and get your hands on one of these things. You deserve it...
Serge
p.s. maybe it's completely uninteresting and it's definitely off topic but still is quite cool: the letter from my electricity provider is printed on 'seed-mat' paper. We can actually put the letter in soil and flowers will grow out of it. Awesome...