Band:	Mindflow
Album:	With Bare Hands
Style:	Progressive metal
Website:	http://www.mindflow.com.br/
Release date:	February 15, 2011
Guest review by:	Mindheist

01. Break Me Out
02. Reset The Future
03. Breakthrough
04. Walking Tall
05. With Bare Hands
06. Corrupted
07. Under An Alias
08. Shuffle Up And Deal
09. Lethal
10. Thrust Into This Game
11. The Ride
12. Destructive Device
13. Instinct
14. Fragile State Of Peace

"But he isn't wearing anything at all!" blundered out a little kid, whose desirability of keeping up the pretence was still unripe, to unmask the two weavers' putrid intentions of ripping off the gullible king. Those remarkable words have stood the test of time and made "The Emperor's New Clothes" more than just a short tale for children.

Eight centuries later and I'm still waiting for that kid to rise from the tomb and uncloak the obtuseness that looms over the whole metal empire and to condemn our asinine way of thinking that heaviness is everything in metal. But until then, let me introduce you to Mindflow, a Brazilian progressive metal outfit that have mercilessly been ripped to smidgens and flooded with vehement critics by many metalheads for producing With Bare Hands - An album deemed not "heavy enough" for our "troo Kvlt" standards and pitiful vanity.

We all had, at some point in time, irrefutably listened to bands with the same approach that Mindflow adopted to mould With Bare Hands: Pure, uncomplicated yet spine-tingling alternative rock with no annoying rasps, no lifeless growls, no intricate riffs or thundering drumming whatsoever. We loved those bands but as time went by we became more and more hypocrite until we turned into tasteless souls tracking down the heaviest sound there regardless of how good or bad it is, just to be appreciated by the "extreme" community. Mindflow are heavy but not that heavy and, unlike many bands, they focus on musicality rather than complexity. Their sound has drifted considerably from pure progressive metal (a Dream Theatre-ish sound that can be found in Mind Over Body) to a rather alternative rock arrangement but with a melodious touch à la Barren Earth, making it much more accessible and much less technical.

A crossbreed between a myriad of sounds that flows like a gentle summer breeze through the breaches of the album and tenderly heists your senses like the last glint of a dying star. Brilliantly veering between light melodic passages and haunting onslaughts with aureate lyrics, With Bare Hands has everything to make you headbang without coming off too heavy or flat. Danilo Herbert's vocals are permeating through the entire album and are simply amazing with great clean singing sections interchanging with aggressive parts. Really, this album's got everything.

Let me break it down for you, you can wear corpse paint, sheep blood, pierce your ears with the heaviest music out there and make fun of Mindflow and thousands of metalheads will love you for that. Or, you can be honest and give this talented Brazilian combo a listen. I'm not saying that you'll definitely like them; after all, it's all a matter of taste. But you can be either that easily duped king or that honest kid from that legendary tale. Your call.