Mindgrinder – “Riot Detonator”
The most attractive quality here is the ability to know what to do and doing it at the precise moment for the most effect. For instance, the blasting on the first four songs is carried out at certain points for maximum intensity; the hook-oriented soloing seems to reach out at the perfect moment, while the drum fills, double bass and tight thrashing riffs carry the non-blasting parts. In short, these songs sound very well composed: tight, but still un-clean and raw. The riffs have huge Slayeresque proportions: there is a forward motion to them that is exciting. I find that this sounds lively, energetic. The vocals have brief guttural, growled parts, but most of the time they are, I guess, I’d have to say “shouted,” but it’s not screaming nor growling. The vocals maybe have a crust-punk, old, early grind feel. At any rate, they fit the music very well. Song five is a nice, clean, serene acoustic-sounding interlude of about one minute, followed by a faster mid-paced number which, again, has well-placed blasting. Seven is a mid-paced number that’s monotonous compared to the rest of the album. Eight is “interesting”: it sounds inspired by Morbid Angel’s slow songs. The next number ends the album (35 minutes) and it’s a thrashier, more grinding track, not to end things in a slow fashion. In other words, the orientation is towards hooks in the riffs and on the first four songs the band is very convincing, which is some 17 minutes of music. The rest of the album is less so, but by no means mediocre. It remains to be seen whether they can capture the excitement and keep it going for a full album.