MIND’S EYE – A Gentleman’s Hurricane

Mind’s Eye is one of those Progressive Metal bands that have seemingly delivered a certain level of quality consistently in their four pre-2007 releases. Diehard fans most assuredly have sensed that while each release seems to get better than the last, these releases were simply stepping-stones to something greater. Listening to the artistic complexity of prior releases by this power trio, one could easily conceive the thought that they were capable of perhaps one day delivering a classic concept album in the vein of Queensrÿche’s magnum opus Operation: Mindcrime. So here it’s 2007, and the trio has unleashed a new album through Lion Music once again, and yes this one is a bona fide concept album called A Gentleman’s Hurricane. The forbearing question on the minds of loyal fans is certainly … “Is this the one to take the band over the top?”

A Gentleman’s Hurricane is indeed being marketed in a unique way, as it’s packaged as a “Cinematic Metal Triple Pack” consisting of the CD, a ‘making of’ the DVD, and lastly a comic book that fills in the gaps of the story that the CD itself does not address. According to Flores during his Metal Express Radio Guest DJ spot, he jokingly made reference to this to hopefully de-motivate some of the illegal downloading of music that happens nowadays.

In a nutshell, the high level story being conveyed revolves around the growing guilt of a 53-year old assassin who seeks refuge and moral answers at the town’s church. The assassin meets the retired head priest, who coincidentally is visiting his old church, and what ensues is a series of confessions on the parts of both “gentleman.” Our assassin only has seven days to find solace before performing his very last job.

Inevitably, the release is peppered with audio clips of the character’s spoken voices with one segment including a phone call and a male voice on the other end giving our assassin a directive to eliminate a female character that knows too much … sound a tad familiar? Perhaps, but still entertaining.

With all of these intelligent lyrics and concepts aside, one thing is certain … this is Mind’s Eye’s heaviest and perhaps best release to date. The album is thirteen tracks total and any listener should be capable of finding some powerful and engaging Progressive Metal here.

Sprinkled throughout some of the tracks are the occasional Beatles/King’s X-like vocal harmonies that Flores, the band’s main music writer, is so fond of replicating. In fact, the opening track, “Praying For Confession,” is somewhat soft and driven by these harmonies, perhaps leaving Metal lovers going “uh-oh … what did I just buy?” Sometimes patience is a virtue, and that’s never been truer as the opening storytelling track carries over into the much heavier track two entitled “Seven Days.”

There’s much to like here with “AssasiNation,” with its catchy, driving riff and chorus, along with the driving riff of “Feed My Revolver” easily being favorites. During the powerful chorus of “AssasiNation,” Andreas comes off sounding similar to Phil Collins (Genesis), but with more authority. What seems to be the growing trend nowadays with male-fronted Metal bands, the band has also included a duet track with an operatic-like female vocalist. “The Hour Of Need” is a duet between Crucified Barbara singer Mia Coldheart and Mind’s Eye’s Andreas, and the track works as well as any who have tried this tactic before.

“Ashes To Ashes (In Land Lullaby)” is for the most part a driving track, but it flirts precariously in shark-infested waters by including some of those Toto-like vocal harmonies that were found on Walking On H2O. Whether one likes those vocal harmony techniques or not, the track still should be heavy enough to be deemed worthy.

Typically guitars would be the reason that a Rock-based release would propel itself over into the Metal genre, but that’s not exactly the case here. On this release, the drums propel the action and music as Flores hits the skins hard, quickly, and often. More times than not the drumming on this release seems to be the dominant instrument leading the rhythm section.

Bottom line, this is Mind’s Eye’s best release to date. All Mind’s Eye fans should be ecstatically pleased. Some of the success of Operation: Mindcrime can certainly be attributed to Queensrÿche’s splendid theatrical tour that supported that release. It remains to be seen if Mind’s Eye is indeed afforded that luxury for this CD. Only time will tell if fans respond well enough to make this Mind’s Eye’s “magnum opus” … but regardless, it’s a hell of a start!

Lineup

Andreas Novak – Vocals
Johan Niemann – Bass, Guitars
Daniel Flores – Drums, Keyboards, Producer