This damn thing has been sitting here for at least two to three months, so it's ridiculous that it took me so long to get around to it, but that's life, I guess. Anyway, Mind Eraser's debut full-length, "Cave", comes to us from Painkiller Records, and since Boston has a damn fine tradition of churning out hardcore bands that are extremely fucking pissed off, this one should please a specific niche of listeners quite greatly—namely the (usually) short, fast, and loud kind of crowd.
Apparently named for a song off of Neanderthal's "Fighting Music" 7", these cats crank out an excellent variety of hardcore/punk that's been loosely compared to Crossed Out, Despise You, and Infest (in addition to Neanderthal, of course). I'd also throw some No Comment in there just for kicks, but what really matters is that this is some dead on material that fits in with the early roots of the whole "power violence" thing. Now, a lot of the stuff that was tagged "power violence" in the 90's was total crap, but this shit really borrows from the classics, laying down a great mix of fast and pissed hardcore with plenty of pounding slow passages and a really bitter attitude. I love this kind of shit, and honestly haven't heard many bands do this style so perfectly in a really long time. The tracks range from 20 seconds to more than three minutes, definitely keeping things moving rather than sticking with the fast, fast, fast nonsense that really harmed this genre years ago (which is also probably the quickest way to bore me to tears). They've also got a killer recording that's just dingy enough, but still sounds thick thanks to a raging bass presence and a nice sense of subtle grit to the guitar texture.
The CD version contains eight bonus tracks from the band's 2003 demo, which are basically rawer sounding renditions of a handful of the LP tracks plus covers of Think I Care and Taste of Fear; plus an alternate mix of "Subtle Entities" (I'm not really sure what the point is there)—totaling 23 tracks in 33 minutes. Take a bite of this action:
Mind Eraser "Thawed Out"
Mind Eraser "Finished"
Mind Eraser "Amazing Solution" (demo version)
I wholly encourage the support of any hardcore/punk band that's reveling in this meaty realm of no nonsense, in your fucking face assaults, so do yourself a favor and make the grab if you dig it:
Comments
The bass tone on that shit is dead-on-perfect. I went so far as to email Justin (the vocalist) and ask for the set-up used to record it. Needless to say, I’ve got a whole new look on recording bass.
We’ve thrown around the idea of doing a project in the same vein as this but a bit more Entombed-ish with some Cleveland and Syracuse legendaries actually. You’ll be in the know as soon as something manifests.
Great post, great record.
12.20.2005 | By Buske DNA
the bass was recorded through a marshall JCM800 guitar head because there was no bass gear at the studio.
12.20.2005 | By chris m
yep, the bass sounds great!
12.21.2005 | By Anonymous
if you like mind eraser check this out.
Several of the same members, and the vocalist sang for XfilesX.
12.23.2005 | By Anonymous
soul swallower is great, and so is this
12.24.2005 | By Anonymous