Band: Mindkey
Album title: Pulse For A Graveheart
Label : Frontiers Records
Distributor: Frontiers Records – Rough Trade Benelux
Release date: 03/07/2009
Release : CD

It took Mind Key half a decade to release their second album "Pulse for a graveheart" (their debut album "Journey of A rough Diamond" already dates from 2004). If you are a prog metal fan then you will probably know them already but if you don't then here is your chance to do a great discovery. According to Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater) "these guys sound really excellent" and I tend to agree.
So now you know what genre Mind Key stands for so we can zoom in on the 10 songs . As you can expect the song structure is far from straight forward but that is exactely one of the strong points of the genre.

Embrace yourselfs for a thrilling ride. "Sunset highway" is a furious opener in which singer Aurelio Fierro already can showcase his vocal talent. The second track "The seventh deal" is another up tempo song with an unusual guitar solo and again the voice of Fierro takes it to a higher level. ....this is really great stuff.

On "Citizen of Greed" we have our first guest appearence by Derek Sherinian from Dream Theater who manages to squeeze a keyboard solo in the song. The song itself is another brutal beauty. So I am not going to reveal to much and give you the opportunity do discover it yourself. "Crusted memories" has a more hardrock touch as some passages remind me of Whitesnake. "Dead Fame hunter" shows many sides of Mind Key...it will take a bit longer to appreciate this song. In my opinion the second part of the song is the best part. On "Ventotene" you get exactly 2 and half minutes to catch your breath again before the next tsunami of noise crashses down on you.
On "Graveheart" MK really kicks ass and we hear Tom Englund from Evergrey duetting with Aurelio. "Graveheart" has got it all...heavy guitars, pounding drums, excellent vocals and a surprising end. "Eye of a stranger" and "Now Untill Forever" remain far beyond my expectations. The final track "A new generation" is a ballad and a damned good one. Time to dream/drift away and enjoy the vocals and arrangements and when the last note fades away just hit the repeat button again and again and ...
So overall a great album that brings a mix of progressive, hard and melodic rock.

85/100

Filip Van de Gaer.