WITH BARE HANDS

'With Bare Hands' - Mindflow (6/10)

Mindflow is a slick melodic metal band from Brazil that first caught my ear with 'Mind Over Body'. Sounding close in sound to the band Pain of Salvation, the band may not have had the most original sound in progressive metal, but they executed the sound with passion and power all the same. As the band has gone on, their sound has certainly drifted increasingly towards a more accessible side of metal, and now at the point of their fifth studio album 'With Bare Hands', Mindflow has drifted almost completely to melodic, rather than progressive sounds in metal. This is not to say that the technicality has been completely abolished, but it is clear that the band is becoming deadset on a more conventional rock song format. 'With Bare Hands' may meet some unsteady ears from the progressive community as a result, but all things considered, the band offers some strong songwriting with this record. At the same time though, there are some issues which can make the album less powerful than it could have been.

As I thought originally with 'Mind Over Body', Mindflow takes quite a bit from the progressive metal giants Dream Theater and Pain of Salvation, possibly leaning a little more to the latter. Many bands are driven by the sounds of their influences in progressive metal, and Mindflow is no exception to this. It would have been nice to here a little more originality from the band though, and to a minor extent, Mindflow is developing a more steady sound for themselves. When compared to 'Mind Over Body' (arguably their best album still), the less proggy sound takes the band away from the Pain of Salvation comparisons, but does not make them any more original sounding. Instead, here the band sounds like quite a few modern hard rock bands, with the neoclassical Dream Theater riffs and Daniel Gildenlow- sounding voice to go along with it. Mindflow is still developing more of an identity for themselves however, although the more simple approach they take here is admittedly less impressive.

Although the songs are generally conventionally structured, they are well written. The vocalist here has a beautifully melodic voice that can also get aggressive when it needs to. There is not such a great variety to the music, but the songs all hold some memorable ideas going on for them. There is a dark vibe to these deeply melodic compositions, and a crisp sound to the whole thing makes it easy on the ears. One thing that I would have liked to see with Mindflow however is a more organic style of production. The drums here sound too dry, and the guitars sound triggered and far too polished, robbing the performance of some of its humanity. Luckily, the guitar solos here are incredible, and when the band gets technical, these issues fade and I find myself very impressed by what Mindflow have to offer.

'With Bare Hands' is another development for this band, and while the band may not have yet developed a truly distinct sound for themselves, Mindflow have established themselves in my mind as a remarkably capable act; be it for powerful melodies, crisp production or great musical skills, Mindflow hold their own very nicely, although there are still better albums of similar style that I would likely recommend sooner than this.

Mindflow is a new name to me. They are from Brazil too and they peddle a kind of modern thrash metal. Take some Linkin Park, Flotsam & Jetsam, hardcore and the sound of numerous post millenium deathcore/thrash metal bands. The kind of music that arrived after I had dropped off the scene. The kind of music that does not really excite me at all.

The musicians in Mindflow does a competent enough job. The vocals are very good. The samples are good too. The music is not that good though. It is a mix of crushing hard and some rather soft stuff, baked into the post millenium metal sound. I am sure this band and the material on this album is good on a stage. But on an album and through a stereo rack, this is not a great listening experience. The problem with this album is simply a lack of any good riffs and melodies. There is none here. This album is as memorable as a shopping list for the daily grocery shopping. Forgetable, in other words.

Good band with a half decent album. Sorry.

2 stars

Like many progressive metal bands seem to be doing nowadays, Brazilian act Mindflow have been slowly shedding away their prog influence in favor of a sleek melodic metal sound, and With Bare Hands shows the band at their most commercial thus far. On this, their fifth full-length studio album, Mindflow sport a modern melodic metal sound that leans more in the direction of Disturbed and recent-Evergrey than Dream Theater and Pain of Salvation. Mindflow's slick new direction is one that I'm certainly not opposed to - after all, I am a fan of both Disturbed and Evergrey - but I feel that With Bare Hands ultimately lacks the "bite" that made their early albums so appealing. Their are plenty of memorable songs here, but they are far too rooted in convention to strike me as anything terribly original.

Right of the bat, I must criticize With Bare Hands for being a bit too conventional and formulaic for my tastes. Nothing here hasn't been done before, and the fairly straightforward songwriting techniques lack enough power and emotion to avoid feeling just a tad redundant towards the end of the album. With that said, damn near everything else about With Bare Hands is pretty impressive. Mindflow are a group of very talented musicians who really have a knack for creating catchy hooks and tasteful instrumental backdrops, and every song on With Bare Hands is highly memorable. The compositions, although a bit too predictable, are generally well-structured and coherent, and even further exemplify Mindflow's talent as songwriters.

With Bare Hands certainly has plenty of positive assets, but I can't help but feel that Mindflow played it a bit safe with this effort. In spite of the sleek production, memorable hooks, and solid musicianship, With Bare Hands lacks the power and conviction that made albums like Just the Two of Us... Me and Them so great. I have no doubt that this is a very good album, but in today's crowded melodic metal market, one has to wonder if "very good" cuts it anymore. 3 stars are deserved for this solid effort and its generally pleasing results, although a bit more originality will be key to winning over this reviewer.

This is a brazilian quartet that focus on creating progressive metal, I don't really know about metal genres but here I find a blend of melodic with some kind of thrash metal or even hardcore in some moments, actually sometimes I have that conflict because I cannot separate those genres, and sometimes is pretty difficult to me to find the progressive rock element in some of these bands, but well, that does not matter, what bring us here is the music.

"With Bare Hands" is the title of the fifth studio album of Mindflow, an album that features fourteen songs and a total time of 66 minutes. In some moments they use electronic elements that spice the music, however I really miss a true use of keyboards in this album, I believe that would have really helped and given to the music a much more interesting sound. With the opener track "Break me out" they give us a nice introduction, with great guitars and cool drums. However, the moment is lost when we listen to songs such as "Breakthrough" which has that kind of mainstream metal sound that kids would love, nothing new to add, nothing interesting in this particular track.

Though there are some nice melodic moments, we can often listen to a powerful sound, with emotional and in moments angry vocals, which are not bad at all. The drums work is pretty cool all over the album, Rafael Pensado is an excellent drummer. Well, all of them are great musicians honestly, though they don't really explore deeper territories, I mean, the songs are not that complex and do not have so much changes, so sometimes I feel them plain and with something to be desired.

The songs' length goes from 4 to 6 minutes average, and to my ears there are not tracks that stand apart, all of them are just nice average songs that complete the album. Some pieces I would highlight are "Under an Alias", "Lethal" and "Destructive Device", there are nice bass lines in some of them, constant guitars and nice but not outstanding guitar work, along with a brief death voice.

Honestly I don't really have anything to add, I did not actually like the album as a whole, I enjoyed a couple of tracks and that's it. I don't believe this is an innovative album or something that cannot be missed, not even by those who do like metal. The musicians are good, but I believe they have not really exploded their compositional skills, they surely have more interesting things to offer. I am sorry if I am being mean, but I am not satisfied with this. My final grade will be two stars. However?

Enjoy it!