Mindriot - Low
Info: This is an album I've been sitting on for a while, patiently edging towards the release date which is tomorrow. Cork rock group Mindriot will be releasing their debut album, Brothers, following their self-titled 6-track E.P. which came out in late-2014, and was recorded in their home county in Midleton. Featuring on both the E.P. and new album is the above single 'Low' which has made it's away across 70 countries worldwide, featured in Hot Press and was nominated for a Meteor award in 2015.
Brothers opens with 'My Alibi', starting out with a distinctly 90's rock intro, the guitars soon announce what is to follow on the rest of the album, fluidly cyclical riffs and a far harder edge, the bass-line echoing In Utero's 'All Apologies' amidst the surrounding chaos, it's a good start but proceedings are about to get better. Whilst the band have been compared to Foo Fighters previously, I only got the odd strand of it, and it's possibly limited to one album, my favourite of theirs, Nothing Left To Lose, and is most notable on second track 'Scream', along with 'Low', I would picture as an obvious single.
Speaking of which, I absolutely love 'Low', you hope the band don't get sick of people telling them how much they like it, it's to be embraced, it's a really fine piece of song-writing, initially seeming overly familiar, but after 30 seconds you're sucked in and get it, songs like this are not easy to write and all of the elements click seamlessly, it's tight, production is top notch and the listener is spoiled. The timing and execution of chugging lead guitar, bass, drums and vocals as they combine pre-chorus is a particular treat delivered with precision. A final thought is that if this song and it's accompanying video had featured on MTV in the late 90's Mindriot would have charted across the globe, particularly in the U.S., and the guys would probably (not!) be demanding the removal of the blue M&M's from the bowl in their tour bus now.
Mindriot - Devil
Maybe it has been said before but the most striking resemblance I came across in some of Mindriot's tracks ('Fire' & 'Devil') was Chris Cornell and his Audioslave debut, another reason this album perhaps appeals to me a lot. There's a very solid vocal performance also on 'Angel Town', lead singer Gorry fitting easily into the role as frontman and transferring an authenticity into the album's songs, we're not here to just play music, there's a genuine will to put meaning and feeling into them.
'Boys of the Tomahawk' has all of the traits of a traditionally hard rock track, instant intention, searing guitars and vocals and a call to action chorus, the stop-start guitar progressions and a thunderingly thick bass. 'Summer Breeze', is it an Isley Brothers' cover? Yes? No, but maybe that would be an interesting insert to their live playlist! Then we come to 'Devil', a behemoth of a track on Brothers, it's intro is mesmeric, watery guitar makes way to bone-crunching drums and guitar whammys. Mindriot close their album with 'Vain', a fine synopsis of the entire album, everything in the right place to quote the Radiohead song, bang for your buck and the Cork band leaving you with the abiding memory that you've listened to a heavy rock fans album, are you listening Dublin??
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