1/1

Russian act MIND PORTAL was formed in 2009, and quickly got down to the task of writing and recording its own material, first and foremost with guitarist Kurnosov as the creative prime mover. A total of 8 pieces were singled out and recorded, and in 2010 these were assembled on their debut album "1/1", which was issued by the Russian label MALS Records.

If you have a soft spot for bands taking on a great variety of expressions, resulting in a smooth and superficially simplistic-sounding but highly fluent sonic landscape featuring nifty details and a clever blend of rock, art rock and progressive metal, Mind Portal is a band you might want to investigate further. Its efforts can't really be said to break any innovative musical ground, but the high quality of the compositional and instrumental skills makes this a worthwhile experience for those whose musical tastes are inclined to enjoy material of this kind.

3,5 realy

Mind Portal is a young band from Russia, playing something between progressive metal and fuison in places, all album is instrumental and is pretty much very ok, even great on some tracks. The album is named 1/1 and is released at russian label Mals in 2010. Here are 8 pieces, not very lenghty with exception last piece Dedication nearly has 8 min, the rest are under 6 min, but very solid musicianship I hear here, realy some fantastic parts on opening track Roller coster, realy as the title implies a great tune with fantastic ideas and great interplays between guitar and keys. In fact all pieces are great, not a weak moment here, Maybe I'm little biased because I've descovered latley some fantastic bands from Russia playing intristing progressive rock, even better then bands with big names, one of them is Mind Portal. Pleasent compostions not very complex, but not easy listning either, the band knew how to give to the listner something worth investigated. So, 3.5 stars for this album, fans of the genre need to discover this band, because has talent and plenty of good ideas.

Excellent debut albun of the Russian band MIND PORTAL, . The disc is very pleasent and don't commit the "sin" of go ttrough to obivious approach already used for contless bands of progressive metal style., unlike, they bring to us a mix of prog-metal/jazz & some "pinchs" of ecletic-prog and even latin-music in the style of Carlos Santana. All of this "ingredients" are spread in the 8 tracks of the disk: In the track 1- "Roller Coaster" I could feel (In the midlle section) a "festive" latin theme, the track 2- "Natural Disaster" presents a mighty "riff" in the "vein" of RUSH,QUEENRYCHE or UFO, the track 4 "Summer Morning" is a great ballad with a very sweet melody, and a slightly waltz "flavor", the track 5- "Traffic Jam" reminds me the main theme of a TV series of the 60's "Missin: Impossible. All other tracks are great, and my rate is 4 stars !!!

Well, if you ask me to name another good Russian instrumental heavy prog rock band, I will not easily find you an answer. Indeed, the Russian rock scene was not really competitive (until recently). It is spoiled by the commercial, MTV format, music. Moreover, the rock tradition was never strong in Russia. Yes, there are a few nice bands, most of them connected to the label Mals Records: Byelorussian In search for, 7th Ocean and Sunrise Sunset Project from Saint-Petersburg, but all those are actually more nice exclusions than a rule. This all makes me wonder even more at this marvel, Mind Portal. The band was formed in 2009 in the city of Voronezh, in the middle of Russia. They play high quality instrumental rock, something similar to the music of Steve Vai and once in a while, it reminds me of Gordian Knot. It sounds quite heavy, but very smooth, a sign of gifted arrangements. The tunes are strong, even memorable, and playing is just wonderful.

Mind Portal is a new star on the eastern rock sky, and who knows what the guys will be capable of in the future. They are definitely worth of following.