2013
A little while back I was commenting on how there are just too many new Ohio rock and metal bands to for me to stay up to date on all of them. That was when I was struggling to come up with words for The Unclean's latest release. I'm not having that problem with the five-piece band Mind Pulp. If anything it is just that without another Ohio band (Black Valor who I have reviewed in the past as well) chances are I might not have heard of these guys. That just goes to show you that in any given area there will always be a new band left to be discovered. You just might have to either look harder or, in the case of Mind Pulp, just get lucky. Originally hailing from New Philadelphia, Ohio (yeah, I didn't know there was a metal scene there either folks) it looks as if they're calling Canton home these days. Even though it is the birthplace of Marilyn Manson I'm not going to hold that against these guys! Granted, Canton would seem to be more of a fit for the band anyway as their sound and style, which is reportedly influenced by the likes of Korn, Static X, Machine Head and Mudvayne, has a real urban grit to it. Mind Pulp was formed back in 2011 and, from the very start, the band's main focus was "to create a style of music that could be embraced by everyone no matter what their taste in music was". I'm not sure that's going to work so well for Mind Pulp unless your average listener's personal tastes includes the word "heavy". More then anything that is what Mind Pulp has going for them on this 9-track release. It should be noted that while there are 9 tracks here it's just 30 minutes in length. So it does run more like an EP. It's not like Mind Pulp doesn't make the most of that short time though. "El Diablo", "Tell Me Why" and "Blood Clot" (all three of which you can be heard on the band's Reverbnation page) offer solid metal in the vein of both Korn and Machine Head. Their Reverbnation page also features a sweet cover of Prong's "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck" so I'd wager that some of Prong's heaviness has rubbed off on Mind Pulp. Of course there's also some of Pantera's heaviness to be found in Matt Pettit's bass playing so you can kind of see where I'm going when I mention that Mind Pulp as that bottom-end crunch factor in their sound. As for the other four musicians there are no slouches among this bunch. Doug Wright and Nick Bonner easily handle the guitars and, on a track like the relentless "Relapse", the solos speak volumes about the talent level of Mind Pulp.Vocalist Chad Heck and drummer Brent Mathias round things out and both do a pretty smashing job with things through and through. The only (minor) complaint to be found of this self-titled release is that when Chad Heck sings clean (I'm assuming he sings both clean and rough vocals) it doesn't have quite the impact of the much more "metal" vocals. And Mind Pulp is very much a metal band as a cut like "Evil Intentions" will attest to. Sometimes when one guy tries to handle both ends of the vocal spectrum it doesn't work so well. Vocalist Chad Heck has the rough vocals nailed down, but his clean singing could use a little tweaking. I do have to wonder though if it's just the mix of this release and if his singing sounds better live? That could very well be the case as Mind Pulp has one of those sounds that must be killer live. Have you ever listened to an album and thought to yourself "I bet this band is heavier then hell and loud as f**k live!"? Considering how well things chug along on this disc I'm willing to wager that the real fun would be found in seeing Mind Pulp live and in living color. While checking out Mind Pulp's Facebook page I noticed that it has pictures from their past gigs (and some "interesting" ones at that) so it looks as if a live setting might just be as good as, if not better, then this studio-release. Of course, judging by some of those live pictures posted on their Facebook page, it's got to be quite the experience seeing them live and Lord knows I wouldn't mind some of those "experiences" right about now! In addition to the numerous bands mentioned above I also picked up on both Dope and White Zombie so the influences are quite varied when it comes to what makes Mind Pulp click. This one would be perfect for the alternative metal/nu metal crowd, but there's also enough here for your average metal head to get excited about. If you find yourself craving something new that's HEAVY (while still sort of fitting into the standard "metal" genre") try hitting Mind Pulp up. There's a good chance you'll find something you like and who knows, you might even find a new favorite band to get behind and support! Find out more at either of the links below.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mind-pulp/219592814733432
http://www.reverbnation.com/mindpulp
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