MindFluxFuneral- Teatro de Revelacion

ARTIST: MindFluxFuneral

ALBUM: Teatro de Revelacion

LABEL: Bit Riot Records

REVIEWER: Matthew Johnson

DATE: 9-5-07

A decade after their debut, Chicago's MindFluxFuneral are back with a sophomore effort and sound as relevant as ever. There's a definite Skinny Puppy feel to this album (no doubt an intentional one, given the presence of a "Brap Mix" of the song "Skinloader"), but unlike so many bands in the scene, MindFluxFuneral have kept with the times. The Skinny Puppy influences you'll hear on "No Man" and "Cuts the Skin" aren't retreads of "Smothered Hope" or "Dig It," but share a contemporary aesthetic with cEvin Key's current material that includes lots of rhythmic glitches, chopped vocal production, and the use of electric guitar as an additional rhythm instrument. Beyond the surface similarities, though, MindFluxFuneral is a whole separate animal, less a starving canine than a rampaging bull. If Skinny Puppy's anger is abstract, MindFluxFuneral's is concrete, as evidenced by the brutal scream-along metal of "Whore," with dual vocal tracks--a rasp on one channel and a bellow on the other--giving you anger squared. Don't mistake this for generic mosh pit music, though, because there's a lot of subtlety underneath all the screaming. "Lies" is as harsh as any track on the CD, but a more stately tempo and a classical interlude make things seem a lot more intense, less like a drunk yelling at you in a bar than a cold-blooded commandant giving the orders to have your whole family killed. Don't look to "You and I" for comfort; despite female vocals and a comparatively restrained percussion section, its thick layers of industrial atmosphere are cold and pitiless, too wrapped up in their own pain to ease yours. Listen to this album from start to finish, and you start to realize why the band took 10 years to put it out; if they start releasing stuff any faster, the trail of scorched earth they leave behind them won't have enough time to recover.

Visit the band online at mindfluxfuneral.n-u-m.com/.