Style: prog metal (mostly clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Symphony X, Fates Warning, Sons of Apollo
Country: international
Release date: 29 March 2024
Guitar solos are what made me fall in love with metal. I remember way back when harsh vocals were a lot to handle for a young metalhead that I’d pretend to like them just because those tech death songs had the best guitar solos. Christian Münzner in Obscura blew me away with his mind-bending solos in Cosmogenesis. Of course, I still loved clean vocal prog metal above all with guitar gods like Michael Romeo (Symphony X). Now what if I told you Mind’s Mirrors not only had guest solos from those two musicians but also Ron Jarzombek (Blotted Science) and Steve Smyth (ex-Nevermore)? Well, debut album Forever Is Not Nearly Long Enough obviously does or else that would be the stupidest bit ever, and shred they do a lot.
Münzner is first up in “Glacial Extinction” and “Mechumanity,” blazing his way up and down scales as if they’re nothing while singer Alan Tecchio wails like a classic prog metal singer would. Mind’s Mirrors own bassist and guitarist—Pál Purnhauser and Daniel Szabo, respectively—are no slouches either, maintaining a romping groove all throughout “Mechumanity” with a particularly earworm-y bit in the chorus. But enough about the band proper—this paragraph is about the guests. Jarzombek is next on “Deadline,” and while it’s not his normal freakout technicality style, he shows off a more melodic aspect of his playing including a particularly rad descending lick in the second solo of the song. Finally, closer “The Blur” has the other two guest musicians and they shred as would be expected, true professionals and masters of their craft.
Aside from these solos, though, Forever Is Not Nearly Long Enough misses the mark to write engaging songs. The band are competent enough with slick production, a shiny album cover, and obvious instrumental skill, but like Whom Gods Destroy and Sons of Apollo, all the talent is for nil when the songwriting and riffs are bland. Most of the riffs are a mid-paced slog that can’t decide whether they want to be traditional heavy metal or prog metal, losing the energy of the former or the technical brilliance of the latter. I’m left just waiting for solo sections: I want sonic excess, not the prog metal equivalent of stale bread.
Possibly the biggest problem with Forever Is Not Nearly Long Enough is Tecchio’s vocals. His crooning sounds like a caricature of the 90s prog metal scene, and the more powerful moments sound like a less capable Dino Jelusick (see: Michael Romeo’s solo work). The biggest shame is how little variation he has in range and technique, leaning on a very monotone delivery—see the end of “Eternal Spring Shine” where the vocal line almost literally consists of one note. For those in the know, his performance sounds like my good pal Max Enix wrote his vocal parts. The solo sections are an extra respite from the vocals let alone the boring riffs.
Even at under forty minutes, Forever Is Not Nearly Long Enough feels like a fifty-five minute album. Even on their debut they sound uninspired: the biggest damning evidence is the fadeouts on several tracks—Mind’s Mirrors can’t even be arsed to write an actual ending to their tracks. The only way I could see a followup album attaining success is if Mind’s Mirrors fully change course to embrace a Spiral Architect-esque level of technicality to become a modern tech-y prog band like Terra Odium in order to give a more appropriate backing for their shreddy moments, but despite the band’s clear abilities, that may be too much of an ask. It’s a shame an album with this much guest firepower ended up amounting to so little—I’m severely let down.
Recommended tracks: Mechumanity, The Blur
You may also like: First Fragment, Spiral Architect, Andromeda, Shadow Gallery (Digital Ghosts album)
Final verdict: 4/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metallum
Label: independent
Mind’s Mirrors is:
– Pál Purnhauser (bass)
– Daniel Szabo (guitar)
– Alan Tecchio (vocals)
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