M I N D L A N E is a new band from Gothenburg, Sweden that consists of members from AMARANTHE, ONE WITHOUT, CHARACTERS and OUTSHINE. They’ve shared stages with bands like Evergrey, Paradise Lost, Soulfly, Katatonia among others.
The members are:
Joonas Niskanen – guitars
Reine Svensson – vocals
Hannu Mäkelä – drums
Session and long time friend: Andreas Solveström (ex Amaranthe) – Screams
The album “Unspoken Silence” is the debut-album.
The first impression I got from listening to this album is that, you can’t have it in the background, with low volume and bad speakers! Quite the opposite! Otherwise you will miss all the different layers of the music. I tried to have the album in the background whilst making Friday dinner, and that didn’t work at all!
My second impression (when listening with headphones!) is that I find a mix of Evergrey, Katatonia and Beseech, with a light brushing of new (not NU) metal. Why Beseech? I really don’t have a clue, but I guess it’s the feeling I get from the music. And I’m listening with a smile. Could you have better influences?
The music is progressive, it’s almost like listening to Queensrÿche or even late Iron Maiden, and maybe also that Evergrey – vibes? And I’m a person that loves those bands!
M I N D L A N E describes them self as a mixture of Meshuggah and Katatonia, and I can really subscribe to the Katatonia-part of it. There are a lot of similarities. The hard part is to try to compare to Meshuggah. When you compare you’re self to a band like Meshuggah, it’s not only the structure of the songs, it’s also the weight, and the heaviness. I do find some of the structures of the songs that can remind me of Meshuggah, but nothing about the weight and heaviness, far from it. And that could create false hope on the music. Don’t get me wrong here, it doesn’t mean that I think this is bad music, just that you might get a false feeling about what you’re about to hear.
On the other hand, one thing that I think divide M I N D L A N E from other bands in this genre is the voice of Andreas Solveström (ex. Amaranthe). He’s the bloke doing the screaming. And this is where I think the modern way of metal slug it self in the music, with the bridges with some heavier music together with the screaming and clean singing.
I’m not sure what I think of that part of the music. Sometimes I think it’s a bit out of place – maybe I’m not the right generation…. But I think
that sometimes it would have been better if the singer Reine would extend his great voice with some heavy duty type of singing instead of the scream-singing – I think it would give a bit more of dynamic in the songs. But on the other hand, the more I listen to the album, the better I like the contrast of singing/screaming. And, when Reine and Andreas sings togheter in the last song of the album “Heroes in Denial“, well that’s almost magic!
The whole album has a dash of Katatonia melancholy, and which gives the music a new dimension compared to other metal bands in the same genre. It gets me thinking about dark winter nights with a glass of wine and a bonfire, where you just turn and listen to your self ( which I’m doing right now, sitting in front of a fire with a glass of wine…)
I generally think this is a really great first album, and I can tell that the members been around for a while. The band have a strong idea about what music they’re into and I’m looking forward to follow them. I think that they have something great going on, and with some fine tuning, this is going to be really good.
I’m for one are going to listen to this album the rest of the year. It’s an album that’s growing on me.
The album will be released on February 2nd – Don’t miss it!
\m/ Peps
p.s For more reviews of great albums, don’t miss our REVIEW Page!
Here’s some album teasers and some internet-addresses for you:
Update: Here’s the Spotify-link to the album:
Official webpage: Mindlane.se
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mindlaneband
Album teaser: https://soundcloud.com/mindlane
Youtube:
