MIND OVER BODY

Coming from a part of the world that is now becoming one of the hotspots for metal, Brazillian progressive metal group Mindflow is one of the more promising melodic metal bands I've heard in recent times. As my first introduction to this band's music, I had little to no idea of what I would find with Mindflow's second full-length studio album 'Mind Over Body', but after having digested it throughly, I am left torn by my opinions. On one hand, the band presents a very appetizing, proggy sound and stellar performance. However, the band's biggest problem lies in the fact that they sound far too much like the genre's existing giants to really take a unique shape of their own.

Going well-past the hourlong mark and featuring many tracks with lengths passing ten minutes, there's no denying that Mindflow are seasoned composers and performers. Led onwards by the strong, trained tenor voice of Benilo Herbert (a voice who sounds close in comparison to fellow Brazillian Edu Falaschi of Angra) the album makes it's label of prog metal well founded from the first moment on. With the opening mini-epic 'Crossing Enemy's Line', Mindflow unfold 'Mind Over Body's greatest track and strength from the beginning, instantly giving a powerful, if derivative journey that while at times quite effective and beautiful, does seem to cycle through sounding like a couple of Mindflow's more obvious influences.

This is where 'Mind Over Body's greatest weakness lies. While the band proves themselves to be highly proficient and skilled, they come across sounding like a bastard child of progressive metal's two greatest acts. While the proggier and heavier instrumental moments could easily be compared with anything Dream Theater has done, Mindflow seems to be a band that also shelters underneath the umbrella of Pain of Salvation as well. Many of Benilo Herbert's vocal stylings seem to suggest he has used Daniel Gildenlow as a vocal model with which to develop under. While the band does work well underneath the shadow of these two giants, as do the majority of progressive metal acts, giving the band a bit of a rough foundation to begin with.

Another issue (albeit to a lesser extent) is that of the consistency in the musical quality. The album is marked throughout by recurring motifs and ideas to give a sort of latent cohesion to the work, but the moments of brilliance are interspersed with drawn out sections that really feel like they could have been cut down in length, in order to preserve some of the lost interest. While each track is bound to have moments that jump out and really amaze, the songs themselves generally feel quite scattered, despite having plenty of awesome musical ideas to use.

A masterpiece that certainly 'could have been', Mindflow really deserves a commendation for a brilliant technical performance and having some moments that easily rival those of Dream Theater or Pain of Salvation. However, the spectres of these two prog metal giants seems to loom over Mindflow's head, refusing to let the band really develop their own unique style and sound. Until then, the album remains a good piece of work, but something that truly has been done countless times before.

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