The packaging/layout here is strange, since the proper band name is not used anywhere except in the website and email address in the booklet. The cover and spines just have a tiny "U.P." Considering this was released in the '90s, that strikes me as an incredibly poor marketing move, so I wonder if there was some purposeful reason for it. I didn't even realize it was the Quintet of Spheres band at first, but luckily the "Mindfailure" album title on the spine was metal-sounding enough to prompt me to pull out the disc and look at it.
This is somewhat of a pity. Ken Jacobsen assembled an entirely new lineup (including Jörg Michael on drums!). The power metal tendencies from the debut have been almost entirely abandoned, the overt progressiveness has been scaled back quite a bit, and there's more of a focus on the technical thrashing. I hesitate to say it would make my shortlist of tech. thrash favs, but I think they're rather underrated within the style.
So what's the issue? The vocals. And if you've read much of this blog, you know what I'm going to say. Dry-sounding, histrionic aggro stuff. They're not even terribly forced as far as aggro vocals go, but the guy was obviously influenced by Phil Anselmo and it just completely takes me out of fully enjoying the music. I'm not even a huge fan of the vocals on the first album, but at least they're serviceable. Adding insult to injury, I noticed the singer here is the same guy who played drums on the Chalice (NJ) demo, which was some really good metal (they should have got the warbly singer from that demo for Unleashed Power).
No comments:
Post a Comment