ARRESTED MIND - Frontal
Early in the Nineties, German band Arrested Mind released their first album on which they played the back then popular crossover of New York hardcore and Bay Area thrash metal. Remember that that was a time when no one talked about metalcore. Soon after the band broke apart, and then it took another twenty years and a couple of assorted projects for the band members to get back together to once again release new music with Arrested Mind.
The final result is an EP titled Frontal which sounds as if the last twenty years had never happened. The main difference to their earlier material is that the lyrics are nowadays in German. This may help the band to get their messages across in a more comprehensible way. On Neue Braune Mitte they are lamenting that radical right ideas become more and more mainstream. On other tracks the band remind that even few people can do change a little at a time. Only the concluding track Spreader Of Fear has English lyrics and deals with the Bataclan terror attack.
Frontal is a rather short affair where the musicians always get straight to the point. Arrested Mind play quite traditional hardcore with occasional metal parts with double bass drum attacks that have a definite thrash leaning. Although the band likes to switch pace, they also like to thrash straightforward as on the rough and unrelenting Impuls. The vocalist is screaming from the very depths of his guts which fits perfectly with the music. Hau ab is a short and groovy track that reminds from a musical perspective of S.O.D., although the lyrics have nothing in common with that politically suspect band.
The twenty-minute short EP feels a little like musical time travel. Those who used to and maybe today still like bands like Biohazard, Pro-Pain, Pantera, Sepultura,… should also have a good time with Arrested Mind. Frontal is definitely not the most original musical statement of the year, but a little dose of retro feeling is occasionally just the right thing to listen to.