Disjointed But Promising Chaos
My first brush with Mendeed was on the Dragonforce tour in the Autumn of last year, my initial impression was that they had a barrel full of capable ideas without having anything that was awe-inspiring. Their excellent traditional and well-executed lead breaks were the highlight of their set, and after listening to their debut album, 'This war will last forever', my opinion of Mendeed's music hasn't really changed.
Mendeed tread that fine line between writing appealing scream-core thrash and choppy incoherent noise. They are very much of the school of thought that why have a couple of ideas when twenty will do just as well. When they get this mix right Mendeed come across as a potent metal force. 'Stand as one and fight for glory' in particular shows their talents perfectly, the facets of the song mesh together fluidly to make the track greater than the sum of it's parts. 'Remains of the Day' also uses this song writing style to good effect, and the sything guitar riff at the 3:40 mark is world class. It's not all good news however, the riff in question is so effective it begs the question; why did the band only use this idea for thirty seconds towards the tail end of the song? As the album progressed I heard a handful of superb ideas that were sorely underused, and somewhat hidden underneath the thrashing and constant changing.
The problem with writing songs in this way is that it's very easy to get wrong, certainly opener 'Beneath a burning sky' and 'Resurrecting Hope' suffer from this complex style. 'Chapel Perilous,' although appealing with it's classy solo and grinding riff at 1:25, has eleven changes before it begins to fade out at the 2:20 mark. With a change on average every twelve seconds, this is perhaps music geared for a generation with a short attention span. I'm not saying this way of writing is incorrect but I feel Mendeed don't have enough ideas to fill each track in this way.
Vocally David Proctor gives us the usual scream-core fare, which gets fairly irritating towards the end of the album. His sqwark tended to take a lot away from some of the excellent musical ideas, 'For blasphemy we bleed' is ruined by his monotone screaming for the main reason that there's absolutely no need for this over-vocalisation. There are a few cleanly sung choruses littered across 'This war will last forever,' but they're pretty dour and flat, the harmonies are uninteresting, and unlike the choruses of such bands as Soilwork and Trivium, they don't sour and they certainly don't cry out 'SING ME'.
Like so many young metal bands such as Trivium and Bullet for my Valentine, Mendeed have mastered the instrumental break. The album's saving grace is its ability to throw in an infectious solo without giving you prior warning. They are well executed and extremely catchy in places, in fact the plethora of ideas and the pace they're delivered at speaks volumes about the talent on display. There is the core of a good metal band in Mendeed, at times they have the brutality of Bleeding Through and the speed and melody of Helloween, (Stand as one and fight for glory) but the production is that of a scream-core band. With Proctor's constant screaming and the band's over-use of thrashing, you'd be fooled into thinking they were actually scream-core. The guitars are too low in the mix, the bottom end doesn't boom and the drums, at times, sound too artificially enhanced.
It seems like I've been harsh on Mendeed, and perhaps I have, I found the album frustrating and a wasted opportunity because deep down I believe there's something trying to get out. There are some great ideas on this album, ideas that could have been utilised and fleshed out. With a little bit more care and thought in the song-writing process, Mendeed could have written a superb thrash album, that would have seen them rise through the metal ranks, but instead they have made a disjointed messy shout-a-thon. Sometimes bands have to remember that it's not just how much noise you can make, it's the way you play it.