Review Summary: With dark, bassy production and some interesting melodic and technical twists, Mental Slavery is one of the better contributions of the Brazilian thrash scene.
Brazil's thrash scene contributed several classic bands leaning on a proto-black metal sound, with a few bands following the lead of the legendary
Sepultura, like
Attomica and
Korzus. Very few of these bands would ever really match Sepultura in influence or popularity however. MX were among these bands, and whilst never really achieving major success commercially, their second album Mental Slavery is one of the few albums from the scene that didn't plainly copy Sepultura or their proto-black metal comrades.
Compared to other Brazilian thrash bands, MX’s sound borrows very heavily from the Bay Area thrash scene, emulating some of
Testament’s technicality and melodicism; coupled with this is a similar penchant for faster aggressive styles to their countrymen, with several
Slayer-esque riffs. Diametrically opposed to the clean, lean Scott Burns mix of its fellow 1989 release Beneath the Remains, Mental Slavery features an extremely dark, bassy and scratchy sounding mix. This is actually probably the album’s most distinctive strength, as it lends the songs a uniquely heavy edge and leads to the harmonized sections of the album feeling a lot darker than on albums with similar traits like The Legacy. Adding to their unique sound are a heavy emphasis on gang vocals and a main vocal style which, whilst mostly sticking to a thrashy growl, occasionally reaches a Martin Van Drunen tortured shout, which adds some nice flavour to proceedings.
The unusual combination of an extremely raw mix with a relatively melodic and technical style works very well for MX here. Most tracks navigate a pretty tidy course flirting with extreme skank-beat driven thrash and more melodic bridges. The tremolo picking driven
Behind His Glasses epitomises this best, opening with extremity close to death-thrash before introducing its more melodic and groovy elements for the verses.
The Guf does something similar, but slows down to a thuggish mid-pace stomp to show off some neat bass embellishments and even a bass solo. The best tracks manage to toe the line between the technical and extreme side the best, especially the excellent
Fake Truth, with its frantic chorus and octave leads providing a much more tense and evil atmosphere. In general, the core aggressive riffs are generic but satisfying, whilst the technical embellishments successfully vary the tone, leading to most of the tracks being pretty well rounded and consistently entertaining outside individual issues with certain parts.
The problems with this album mostly come in weird traits of the riffs and drums. A big offender is
I Will Be Alive, which feels like it should be doing an ascending progression with some of its riffs but ends up going nowhere and simply repeats in an unsatisfying fashion. Similarly, its big post-chorus breakdown has an unfitting drum beat that saps the intended power from the riff;
What Am I? also has a similar issue, with a bizarre polka beat following its aggressive opening which feels like it would lead to a fast skank beat or some double kick work. The vocals are also firmly stuck in gruff growl mode, with comical effects on the otherwise pretty excellently arranged
I Will Bring You Me. When these tracks hit their stride, however, they all have a tangible energy and the good range of different technical elements keeps things pretty fresh throughout the album’s runtime. The only other major offender are the guitar leads, which aren't anywhere near as interesting or unique as some of the bass parts. Some of the tracks near the tail end of the album don't have as many strong hooks as the earlier tracks as well, although every track has one or two catchy parts, so it's not a major issue.
MX walk a weird line between goofy amateurishness and well-tooled precision on this album, and as a result there’s a lot to like on this album and a lot that probably can be safely skipped. When they hit the mark though, like on Fake Truth or Obvious Who Is Not, it’s clear how much potential they had. Sadly, following this album and like so many other thrash bands, they ventured into groove metal territory, and the rest is history. Still, this album is a strong standout for the Brazilian metal scene in the pre-death metal era.
