Mind Control

Review originally posted at http://www.teethofthedivine.com by Erik Thomas

Not to be outdone by Metal Blade’s group of teenage deathcore kids, Fate, here come Mediaskare/Century Media with their own group of growling, blasting, shredding, breakdowning kids plucked right from the halls of a San Diego High school.

Though most might cringe at yet another group of snot nosed kids who can’t even buy a beer releasing a ‘death metal’ album, the fact is, this lot are pretty darn talented. They are more brutal and technical than Fate, and their presentation is a far more pure death metal, in fact, I’d say Burning the Masses have more in common skill and delivery wise to The Faceless, and at times I was thinking to my self that Mediaskare has found the deathcore equivalent to Decapitated.

With a sticker claiming the CD for fans of Between the Buried and Me and Necrophagist to reel in all sorts of curious fans, the fact is Mind Control is a tech death metal album with some breakdowns and some pretty nifty solos, making them far more appealing than the usual Bring Me The Horizon styled tripe that’s so vogue now.

Dave Montenegro has a standard roar/growl, but the rest of his cohorts have a grasp of dynamics and talent far age their age group. The guitar skills of Chris Valenzuela and Arde Ostowari are on display through each song, though flamenco themed interlude “Chupacabra” and very entertaining closing instrumental number “Galactic Abduction”, (no do dissimilar to Fate’s “Vultures” as far as pure melodic shred) put them at front and center. Even with three tracks from their Volatile Existence demo (”Mind Control”, “Cyanide”, “Nailgun Massacre”) the material on Mind Control blends perfectly in short bursts (2-3 minutes) of crumbling, blasting, technical death metal with deathcore undertones. The production is stout, the lyrics are not to forced death metal or stupid (despite the bands apparent love of Natures own) and the frequent solos give the material a short in its teenage arm that belies the bands age.

Tracks like “Moltres”, “Euphoria Ends”, the aptly titled “Prodigy”, can go toe to toe with most of the years second tier of tech death metal and deathcore releases (Whitechapel, Carnifex, Catalepsy, After The Burial, The Faceless, Days of Betrayal, Suicide Silence, Glasgow Grin, Fate Happy Face, etc), but I’ll admit they have not quite got that ‘wow’ factor and I imagine their age and deathcore stigma will keep too many older folks from checking them out. Still, with these guys barely out of diapers they only have room to grow, improve and make a real dent in the scene.

In a related note I have started my own label and my first signing is a group of deathcore kids from my daughters childcare called Diaper Rash, look for their first demo called “Teething is a Bitch” early next year.