Selfmindead
At the Barricades We Fall
Reviewed by Ben Mengden
Strikingly powerful, this release easily supercedes their former release. Heavy throughout, they have evolved from a tech metal band to a more up and close hardcore band with some definite metal roots. Selfmindead has apparently evolved into a more mature less complex, but stronger band. It almost seems that they have come back to what would be classified as an older sound without the frills. They are not as start / stop you hear so much of. I dig it so much more. This is a beautiful album. If you haven't heard anything by these guys, they are in the same genre as some of their label mates (Blindside w / o the rapcore thing, Stretch Arm Strong w / o the punk feel, Spitfire but much less metal). This is dead on hardcore. The vocals are screechy (somewhat), they too seem much more mature and appealing. The vocals quickly grew on me and are incredible. They are nicely backed as well, which continues in the albums success of being rich bodied. This is not a shallow sounding record. The guitars are full sounding. Very good quality in the recording. Really good. Mixed and engineered well. Listen to "Under the Water" and pay attention to what is coming out of what speaker. Nice job. It's touches like this that make an album so much more interesting. Back to the guitars . . . powerful. Some of the guitar work reminds me of Belew of Stavesacre. There is a nice range of sounds and effects (see "Rules to Break / Laws to Change" - probably my favorite song on the album - listen carefully at the variety of stuff going on. The whole album is like this). On the whole the guitars are just strong. I dig the consistency, the dependability. They had this in their first album as well, but now the feel of their music has changed so much. It is much less fractured, and although that worked for them in their former release, I find myself much more drawn to their new way of hardcore. Maybe that's it too. There is less metal to this one. And although the complexity is vacant (and mind you this is no simple album, not in the least - this is a comparison), the beauty is made in the obtainability of each song. For example, each song has very nice guitar work with splashes of ingenuity. The songs being so completely complex in their first one was what made it so interesting. Here it is more everyday, but so very good that you are digging every moment. Onward... There are some strong bass lines adding again to that full sound they have created ("Always" has a cool bass line to start things out). The drums are excellent and stand out in the album as an entity in their own (tight drums in "Agree to Disagree"). The lyrics remind me of the common hardcore topics. Some I really dig ("Rules to Break / Laws to Change" and "Liar"). Not super deep, they are somewhat self - motivational ("The Motivation Song," "One Step Forward," "Freedom," "Burn Down...") while some are self - realizational ("this is where I'm at" kind of statements like in "Under the Water"). You can check out the lyrics. I don't know about all the self - made - man ideology that sometimes hardcore fosters (and is somewhat present here), but I think that there are some decent things being said in some of the songs. And there are some encouraging things too and that is an excellent thing. It's all top notch packaging. Very slick. All together, this rises quickly to one of my favorite albums (especially in the hard music family) that I have heard in the last six months. I think it will be a long standing favorite. It's that strong of an album.