Mind Key
MKIII - Aliens in Wonderland

It seems like there are aliens in wonderland, perhaps in a spacey wonderland. The cover would suggest that it is like that, the cover of the third album by the band Mind Key. A band that hasn’t been the most diligent ever, their debut album was released in 2004, the second in 2009 and the third now in 2019 – if they keep the current trend of pace releasing albums the fourth will see the light of day in 2039. It is not necessarily a bad thing to release albums less frequently as you evolve a bit when time passes and the bigger the gaps between albums, the more variation it will be between the alums as you rarely think quite the same five or ten years later. So how about this album? The cover art is quite interesting so there is at least one thing that is interesting about the album.

Musically it is progressive metal combined with 80s style hardrock, fair bit of energy and quite catchy songs with good depth and variation. The vocalist is a classic hardrocker with a strong voice, fits perfectly. The production is really good and keeps the small nuances contained in the songs, something that gives the album quite a bit of longevity even though it is quite easily accessible etc. The style is quite familiar, all the songs will have a familiar tone for you but it is also quite fresh so they have managed to find a sound that is both very familiar yet fresh. And thanks to the depth in the songs it is an album you can listen to many times without growing tired of it and you don’t really notice that the playing time is close to an hour as it feels a fair bit shorter than that.

This is a great album in every regard with good songs; I especially like those nice little subtle keyboard touches that add plenty to the songs. The energy and general catchiness also makes it an easy album to like, that combined with the fact that they manage to make an album that is both familiar and fresh makes it very positive. The argument that they don’t really offer much new is of course valid but they have combined the familiar elements in a way that makes it sound fresh so the argument becomes less important. You have to look long and hard for weaknesses in this album and the most likely outcome is that you will not find any; it is a really enjoyable album. I think that this is great and it should appeal to the nostalgic rockers as well as the ones who enjoy the more progressive approach.

Excellent stuff, the best tracks is the opening one called Alien in Wonderland and the one known as Olivion – I think those are the most memorable tracks of an album that is quite memorable in general. That leads to the conclusion that it would be unwise not to check out this excellent album, there is a very high probability that you will like it.

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