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Mindfeed - Ten Miles High

Artist:	Mindfeed
Title:	Ten Miles High
Label:	Inside out IOMCD022
Length(s):	46 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1998
Month of review:	04/1998

Line up

Glynn Morgan - vocals, guitar
Jay Micciche - drums
Jason Beirne - bass

Tracks

1)	Waiting	4.43
2)	Words	5.36
3)	Cold Smile	5.58
4)	Ten Miles High	5.21
5)	I Bleed	5.13
6)	Innocent	4.46
7)	We Stand/we Fall	4.12
8)	Look Like You?	5.37
9)	Mother (acoustic)	4.37

Try a sample of the album in MP3 or RealAudio

Summary

This album is the second album by this band featuring the singer of Threshold on Psychedelicatessen. John Jowitt, from IQ, Jadis, Ark and Arena (he's rapidly becoming the John Wetton of the new generation) also played a part in this band but was soon replaced since he had too many other things to do.

The album has come out in Midprice so do not be surprised if this album costs you less than most other albums. I think this is a good idea: some people may not want to buy an album of fortysix minutes (including two tracks that have been released elsewhere) for the full price, but if it is LP length why not pay LP prices? An idea for other bands and labels, maybe? Although the label mentions this is to push the band extra, let's not hope many people will think that low price means low quality, something which I have observed more often in the past: cheap is taken to mean "It may become cheaper. Let's wait for that"

The music

Described in the bio as having a more direct approach than Threshold, a band they will inevitably be compared with, this seems indeed the case. The songs are a tad shorter and all fall between 4 and 6 minutes in length. Fortunately however, the music is not run-of-the-metal, but it does contain the driving energy of this genre: double bass drums, washes of cymbals, a heavy guitar sound but spiced with good melody and especially a good build-up. I'm especially fond of the tensionbuilding lone guitar in the middle (reminds me of Blue Oyster Cults Don't Fear The Reaper). A slower, heavier approach is taken in Words. The verses are not so great, but the melodicity of the chorus is appealing. After the vocal part we get a slow intermezzo for the guitar solo part to start and the chorus is repeated. The intro to Cold Smile sounds familiar. Again, the music is quite melodic, although the melodies aren't always as attractive. The rhythm guitar is very prominent in this not overly fast song. The title track opens as a sad song with moody lyrics and music. The chorus is quite angry though. On this song it shows that Morgan really has a good voice. Although the music is not overly complicated, it does feature its quotum of breaks and mood and tempo changes. A nice guitar solo rounds the track of. I Bleed is the first (heavy) ballad. No acoustics here, but the pace of the song is such that the label ballad is appropriate. Also quite a lot of synths on this track. Not on the fore of course, but present nonetheless. Innocent is a track Morgan wrote for Threshold and is an emotional track with a great vocal melody. Impressive. We Stand/We Fall is the seventh track already and it is not that heavy. The chorus is easy to singalong with. After the heavy Look Like You the album closes with an acoustic version of Mother, also present on the previous Mindfeed album. I'm not familiar with this version, but the song easily stands in this acoustic arrangement, with good harmony vocals.

Conclusion

As a mix of Threshold and King's X, the sound of the former and the directness of the first, one can describe Mindfeed. Certainly a very nice progmetallic album, more heavy than speedy and certainly not very complex, but I don't feel the band, like Threshold, is so heavy that it will only appeal to metalheads. The songs are generally quite melodic, although there's hardly a place for keyboards, and the music should appeal to lovers of Threshold, but also King's X.