Mindscar
What's Beyond the Light

The story of the band Mindscar begun back in the late nineties in a brief stint that ended in 2002 after an EP and some demos. The story then started anew in 2012 and their first album saw the light of day in 2015, and now I am putting down digital letters on a digital sheet of paper about their second album that is dealing with what’s beyond the light. The press information makes quite the big deal that some guy named Matt Heafy was part of the band for a very short period of time – he did make a guest appearance on their debut album and is possibly known for being part of a band called Trivium. So what’s the point of that as this Heafy is no longer part of the band and isn’t on the album? It is not like he famous either.

The band play death metal and they do not completely think inside the box using both melodic touches and more traditional death metal elements as well. The vocals are of course growly and aggressive, kind of thrashy I think. The music is certainly not as dumb as claiming that the artwork is made out of blood and semen, and that is certainly a good thing. Even though the production could have been better, it feels almost cheap in a way. But then the songs are fairly varied and always seems to go straight to the point, and the album is short as well with nine tracks playing for just over half an hour.

I think it is a pretty good album with things to like; they have some strong melodies and some good ideas here. It is an album with things to like but as a whole it just doesn’t stand out that much and in the end I believe it to be a rather forgetful album in comparison with what already exist in the genre. Those who buy the album probably won’t be disappointed, but I doubt that they will claim it to be their favourite album. But it is appealing enough to give a moment of your time, unless of course you want to give that time to something a bit more exciting.

Mindscar makes a good second album, nothing extraordinary but a solid death metal album that might appeal to quite many even though I think they would need a better production and a little more bravery if they are really going to succeed in the future.

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