Mind Key – Pulse For a Graveheart

Releasedate: 03-07-2009; Label: Frontiers Records
By: Lara Cappelli

The story of Mind Key began in 1999 with the purpose of making music with the influence of bands such as Dream Theater and Symphony X, but still including something new. After their first demo, released in 2001, ‘Pulse For A Graveheart’ is their forthcoming album.

To be honest, I’ve never heard anything from this Italian band before and well, I’m to blame, because I have to admit that it’s been one of the most interesting I’ve discovered in this year.
Pulse For a Graveheart is a great album and the powerful melody of ‘Sunset Highway’ is the perfect beginning of it: in it the singer Elio Fierro gives a taste of his excellent skills that characterize all the songs.
Great is the guitar intro of Emanuele Colella in ‘The Seventh Seal’ followed by a good band work. ‘Citizen of Greed’ must be maybe the one of the album I prefer: in it the band finds a perfect balance between melody and solos (one of them played by Derek Sherinian, Dream Theater) that perfectly continues in ‘Crusted Memories’ and ‘Dead Fame Hunter’.

With ‘Ventotene’ jam you have the chance to relax for actually just two minutes and a half, before the start of the strong ‘Graveheart’ and ‘Eye of a Stranger’. Interesting is the song ‘Now Until Forever’, in my opinion the most various one in which you can clearly get a resemblance with Dream Theater style. I find it amazing the choice to end the album with such a great ballade as ‘A New Generation’ accompanied by a few strings but above all by Reb Beach (Whitesnake, Winger) and Tom Englund (Evergrey) on the vocals.

As already said, I really appreciated the album and I suggest to keep an eye on this band not just to Dream Theater fans, but also to those who don’t like certain sounds, you won’t be disappointed!

Tracklist: 1. Sunset Highway 2. The Seventh Seal 3. Citizen of Greed 4. Crusted Memories 5. Dead Fame Hunter 6. Ventotene (The Island) 7. Graveheart 8. Eye of a Stranger 9. Now Until Forever

Links:
Mind Key MySpace
Mind Key Official