1/2: THOUGHT AND MATTER

Mind Portal is an excellent prog rock/prog metal band from Russia with 2 albums in their pockets so far. To tell the truth both albums are more then awesome, really solid releases, little known in prog circles. The second release from 2014 named 1/2: Thought And Matter is another top instrumental prog metal album with fusion elements added in the mix.

Here are 6 pieces, very lenghty with exception of one piece, the rest are above 8 min, very solid musicianship I heare here, realy some fantastic parts on opening title track Though and matter, realy great tune with fantastic ideas and great interplays between guitar and keys. In fact all pieces are great, not a weak moment here, I was kinda surprise to see how unknown they are to prog public, is a good record that is needing to be heared and appreciat at true value. 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 quite complex, the band knew how to give to the listner something worth investigated. For me the Vyacheslav Bessonov keyboards are killer and in duelings with Grigory Kurnosov guitar make an intresting album to have always changing in mood and tempo.

So, 4 stars for this album, fans of the genre need to discover this band, in my opinion better then the debut who was already a solid one.