From the Ashes "Mind Vortex" CD
[Acoustic Trauma]
Raging grindcore from Sweden in quick blasts that average around a minute each. Expect a fairly raw recording with harsh guitars and vocal screams, lots of speedy blasts contrasted by forceful slower breaks, etc. It's pretty token contemporary grind, comparable in some ways to a more hardcore/punk Nasum blended with Phobia, though there's of course a lot of metal in here too. Speaking more specifically about the recording, my only gripe is that it's too thin. The bass guitar disappears behind everything else until given intentional room to breathe, the drums aren't very full, and the guitar tone needs a little more punch as well (though a thicker rhythm section could take care of that). The vocals sound pretty good to me and have a good home in the mix, and this isn't a messy sounding record at all, it's tight... it just needs a little extra push from the low-end. The songwriting is fine by me. They use speed well and things keep moving without growing too stagnant. On a few occasions the tremolo picking gets so intense that it borders on what I could tag as a black metal influence (take portions of "Indoctrination", for example). Most of the vocals are midrange shouts/growls contrasted by higher shrieks - pretty typical of the genre, and I definitely prefer the lower delivery. Admittedly a lot of the songs do start to sound familiar after about the first half of the disc, but I think that's true for most bands that have well over 15 songs on a full-length, so I'm not bothered by it. The tempo changes definitely help, as subtle or brief as they may be. The layout looks good to me, with a lot of high contrast imagery (artwork and band photos), lyrics, etc. The color scheme is basically all shades of brown with some medical diagram types of imagery and whatnot. My only gripe is that the text is tiny, so the lyrics can at times be incredibly hard to read through. Most of the tracks are pretty open, suggestive of socio-political commentary on war, materialism, information manipulation, and that ort of thing, but never getting too specific - often opting for the bleak side: "Starving masses, fighting time, Dropping bombs, securing home, People holding on, Diseases strike, doomed to die." A good release overall. Were it much longer I'd probably be a little bored by it, and I still think a heavier recording would really add more impact to these songs, but this is a good start for these guys. Diehard fans of the genre should take note. (7/10)
Running time - 26:00 (approximately), Tracks: 23
[Notable tracks: Crawl, Now is the Time, Torn Down, Slammed to the Ground]
Acoustic Trauma Releases - http://www.theacoustictrauma.com

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