Review Summary: Great thrash grind, from Australia.
Mindsnare is an Australian Metal band that combines elements of thrash and grind into their music. They have been on the scene for awhile, putting out four albums, and numerous EP's . Despite this, only their latest album Disturb the Hive was on sputnik music (until recently) and, it had just one vote when I came across it. They definitely deserve more recognition because they are simply put the best band coming from Australian metal scene, for what little there is of one, since, well, ask yourself, do you know of a great Australian thrash-grind band?
Fist off, despite Mindsnare being a small band they got the privilege of having great production. Producer D.W. Norton has done an excellent job at bringing out every instrument and never overpowering any section of the band, even the bass can be heard at times. The entire album only lasts 22 minutes, but its a great 22 minutes, the short time allows each song to be independent through different riffing styles. The riffs themselves are great, and are always imaginative and fun to listen to. The songs also never get repetitive because of each songs short length.
The guitar work on Disturb the Hive is always consistently above average. The guitarist never sinks into a pattern of repeating a single riff into un-listenable oblivion and always switches it up to keep things fresh. Did I mention the riffs were amazing? Well I did but it's worth mentioning again. These riffs are some of the greatest I've heard in quite along time. There not played particularly fast, (However there are some very fast songs like I Can See Blood) but it dosen't matter because their so well put together that playing them too fast would take away from the experience because you couldn't appreciate them fully.
The drums are never outstanding, usually sticking to a well done double bass for a majority of the time, but there are quite a few good-to-great drum fills that hoist the drummer above the horde of mediocre dime a dozen metal drummers. I honestly can't say much about the bassist because he is not heard too often, though when heard he provides solid bass lines that his band mates build off of. The vocals are kind of a mix of Pig Destroyer like screams and typical thrash shouting. They sound angry all the time and not only go well with the music, but are never overbearing or overdone. I would talk about the lyrics but I can't understand a word he's saying, and no one on the entire Internet seems to know either, well they are from Australia so that could be why.
Disturb the Hive successfully combines thrash and grind, though it is clearly more thrash. There may be grindier songs like A Circle With No Ends, but most of the songs, epically
Burning Black, are more rooted in thrash. Mainly because of the lightning fast vocals on some of the songs (Turn you inside out, Burning Black) and the typical double bass drumming that is used creates a thrashy tone on most of the album. However the band does frequently shift to a slightly less thrashy side and gets more grind influenced, a tad slower and the drums become much more varied. I do highly enjoy the thrashy parts of the album, but these grindier sections are pure gold. Every time the songs shift I eagerly await an imminent perfectly executed grind section (I was never disappointed) and this makes the album better, and funner to listen to.
In term of depth you probably are not going to find too much here. These are not the massive song structures of bands like Neurosis or Isis, where you discover a hidden passage after the fifth listen. This is fun, straightforward, and slightly catchy thrash grind and it isn't trying to do much else. Disturb the Hive is a great listen for anyone interested in grind or thrash and looking for a great album to head bang along to.
