Mindripper - Kahos Humana
Adipocere Records - CDAR98 - 2005
By Philip Whitehouse
It's been a while since an album intro actually unsettled me, but
Mindripper's opening salvo on
Kahos Humana did just that. It takes a while to realise that the wind instruments and gently echoing dripping noises are actually taken from Private Pile's suicide scene in 'Full Metal Jacket' - but by the time you do, you've been lulled into complacency by the ambience - then Pile sucks in a breath out of nowhere, and sparks a jump out of you. Not a bad way to get the reviewer's attention, lads. Luckily, the rest of the album is equally deserving of attention - a skillful blend of black and death metal, conjuring some of the best aspects of both along with a cracking production, a skilled drummer and a knack for some engrossing songwriting.
First track proper 'Gardiens' (the band sing in their native French) kicks off with tasty polyrhythmic drumming (not overly
Meshuggah-ized, though) before the album settles largely into a pattern of segueing from hypnotically layered black-metal riff-trances and thrash/melo-death bludgeons, chucking in some
Dark Funeral-esque blast-frenzies from time to time, as well as down-tempo chug-a-thons. The tracks are varied and intricately structured, ensuring that the listener's attention is retained throughout.
However, picking out highlights is a tad difficult, since the inter-track variation is not a trend that extends to the album as a whole. Each track, complex and intricate on it's own, pretty much sounds thematically like the next. Instrumentally, the band are clearly very talented, and the compositions are first-rate - it just seems that
Mindripper could benefit from a widening of scope, allowing some distinction from song to song. However, this is an impressive debut from a promising band.
7.5/10
Official Mind Ripper Website
Official Adipocere Records Website
