Charmed Human Art Of Significance
(Lion Music - 2010)
Lion Music present another new band - MindSplit. Masterminds behind MindSplit are H.B. Anderson and Michael Holm who both were part of The N Sin in the late 80's. They hooked up with Madison bassist Conny Payne and drummer Jon Skäre and keyboardist Jonas Lidström. The lyrical concept for C.H.A.O.S. was singer H.B. Anderson stumbled upon his grandfather's notes from his therapy sessions, Xerxes Anderson's Artificial Universe (a.k.a. Prof. Xandau 1807 ~ 1851).
With spoken words they kick off Charmed Human Art Of Significance. Prologue - The Awakening is atmospheric and makes you curious, you want to hear more and so you head with them into Silhouettes, the longest track of the album. Silhouettes seems to combine Dream Theater's progressiveness with atmospheric sounds and prog rock keyboard passages. Some parts have a Savatage-sque touch, but you can also find a dash of Evergrey in their sound. Their sound is as complex as the human brain and so as fascinating. At Presence Of Time they add some Arabic elements, but its just a sound element before they head into an instrumental passage incl. a guitar solo. And the end will surprise you! After the acoustic ...elsewhere? they offer Inside The Heart Of Silence, a catchy tune which will enchant you! Epic and dark, mid-paced and fast passages combined with slow parts plus emotional vocals - all this descries Evergrey's sound... MindSplit are different, but their sound is based on the same ingredients. To get an idea about MindSplit you can visit their MySpace or check out the video for NMe - Myself & I.
At Through The Eyes Of A ChildMindSplit remind me of Trans-Siberian Orchestra... A beautiful piano ballad. The following A Room With Thousand Doors starts like the previous track ended, then spoken words and a Gregorian choir. And again they make me think of TSO, coz the tune is symphonic and emotional, less progressive then others. Another progressive track is A Purpose Of Circumstance, with 10 minutes it's another long track which takes you onto a voyage incl. saxophone and female vocals. The circle closes with Epilogue - The Imaginary End. MindSplit offer an interesting album for fans of atmospheric progressive metal. Evergrey fans should give it a try, perhaps it's too technical for you at some parts, but perhaps they will enchant you with other tracks....
