Band:	Myndkill
Album:	Disenchantment
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	2006
A review by:	wrathchild

01. Race The Darkness
02. Burn Me Eternal
03. Fear
04. All My Sins
05. Near Me
06. Soulless
07. Tears Of Disenchantment
08. Warclouds
09. Ritual Dance
10. [bonus]

Melodic metal
USA, 2006
Self-released
Length: 42:10



Here is another Internet story, the gathering of musicians who decided to write and record an album on their own. They eventually succeeded and so here's Disenchantment, Myndkill's debut. We're talking about Melodic metal with female vocals, a widespread formula that Myndkill twisted their own way.

And their own way is confusing. Just by looking at the cover, I feel confused: I really don't find that the fonts used for the band logo and the album title match the drawing (mysteriously "horizontal"). And this feeling actually sticks to my mind while listening to those 10 songs (the last one is a bonus, not mentioned on the cover) as I don't find that the music matches the vocals.
The music sounds heavy and compact, yet the vocals are soft, distant and high. The production is probably the main reason why this doesn't seem to work with Myndkill's music: This self-production is not bad, but far from nowadays quality standards and the performances of all the musicians are clearly diminished. You can read more about the rather restricted production process of the album on their website.
But I cannot blame it all on the production... To me, Disenchantment is a boring release. The compositions stop being surprising very quickly and very few moments are memorable. There are many passages I like (the thrashy guitar riffs on Race The Darkness, the keyboards on Burn Me Eternal, some choruses, etc.), but they're drown by the linearity of the tempo and the diction. This is also valid for the narrations on songs 1, 5 and 9, supposedly introducing a storyline that I honestly think is not very exciting, although I have to say I haven't read it: The note on the booklet reads "For more of this story go to our website", but once there I found nothing to read about that particular story...

I should consider this debut a demo from a band that needs to improve. Sure, the low-budget production (which is something I totally understand) is probably inevitable, but what the music lacks the most is character, something that would make it more interesting.