Mind Games – Spirals in a Wider Space (2024)

As you can see on my favourites page, I have a very warm heart for the Belgian proggers of Mindgames and the album Actors in a Play remains a classic for me with its long compositions with a wonderful balance between lush keyboard parts and nice guitar work. I also think the voice of singer Bart Schram is one of the better in our genre and especially his visual lyrics show the ability to take you along in the story.

On the last album Paradox of Choice, guitarist Rudy vander Veken had already been replaced by Sandro Starita, who has a more heavy style. And on the latest album Spirals in a wider Space, master keyboardist Tom Truyers has also disappeared and that has a major influence on the sound. The sparse keys are now played by Starita, but they are really purely supportive. So no more nice synth solos and I think that's a real loss. Starita is a fine guitarist and his stamp on this new disc is really huge because there are many layers on both acoustic and electric guitar on top of each other so that the lack of keys may not be so noticeable at first glance. Bassist Maximilian von Wüllerstorff can be heard in front of the mix and that makes Spirals in a wider Space a real guitar album and actually not really comparable to the previous albums. Drummer Benny Petak has been replaced by Thomas de Vriendt and that will have added to the change in sound as well.

We are dealing with a real concept album and that is of course exciting and the question is, how does this all work out?

I've had the album for a few weeks now and listened to it many times and I'm having a hard time with it because if I'm honest I can’t seem to get used to it. There are really heavy parts that show some more gritty rock but also quiet and serene passages. So you could say, nice and varied, don't you like that? Um, yes actually but sometimes it changes so abruptly that you don't get the chance to get stuck in a piece. I also miss those beautiful drawn-out melodies from the earlier albums, but every now and then I do hear very beautiful pieces. For me, Tears of Civilisation is one of the nicer pieces with a solid rocking ending. You feel that they have decided to make a heavier album that leans more towards the rock side and distances itself from the floating neo-prog of yesteryear and in this they succeeded.

We start the story with Introlude and in this song alone the course changes several times and that in a song of just six minutes. Godlike Strangers is a song with wonderful guitar solos by Starita and an easy-to-follow chorus. For a moment you think you hear a prog metal band, but then the acoustic guitars take over again and the seagulls wave us goodbye. Who are you anyway is one of those songs where some supporting keys can be heard here and there, but with heavy guitar riffs and a spicy guitar solo it is quite heavy. That is, until a psychedelic sauce is poured over the jazzy chords and sitar sounds mix with acoustic guitar to end in the buzz of human voices with one last swipe from Schram. Are you still following me? High above the Clouds has a somewhat cheezy melody but also contains a nice piece of guitar strumming that ends in heavy guitar riffs. Hunter’s Bait.... Is an interlude on acoustic guitar with a whistle tune and later on we get ...... Lion's Fate which contains a very nice piece of bass guitar.

There  really is  a lot to take in, but the vocal lines are not always easy to follow and are a real challenge for me. I just can't get into this album. As I said, I deliberately waited a little longer to write this review because I just wanted to love the album, but I just can't. Also the beautiful piece of piano by producer Frank van den Bogaert in A sharp Revolution with wonderful vocals by Schram cannot tip the balance to undivided positivism. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's a bad album but for me the former magic is a bit gone.

For the time being, I don't expect the album to be on my annual list, but it will certainly get several spins and with that the chance to persuade me. Still, I think it's the lack of keys that holds me back the most and that for a guitar man, strange huh? I hope they decide to add a real keyboard player to the band in the future to make the sound more symphonic, more proggy.

The artwork is beautiful and again it is not clear to me how much influence AI has had, but again I say, it is rapidly becoming impossible to imagine life without it. Designing an album cover with AI also involves a form of creativity, but I understand that it is frightening for many artists. For me, a beautiful cover is a beautiful cover.

Music 76

Cover 80