Disarmonia Mundi
Mind Tricks

If melodic death metal is in dire straits, if the latest releases from Soilwork, Dark Tranquillity, Arch Enemy, Burden of Grief, The Haunted have not satisfied you, and you have already worn out all the CDs/LPs from esteemed labels like In Flames/At the Gates (and maybe Sentenced as well), then you might want to turn to discover this Italian combo, with two other excellent works released by our own Scarlet Rec, positively reviewed by the European specialized press, featuring none other than Mr. Bjorn "Speed" Strid from Soilwork on vocals.

Now, to be honest, his presence doesn't significantly impact the songwriting of the Piedmontese band, which is entirely in the hands of the truly eclectic Ettore Rigotti (all instruments and clean vocals) and the screamer, as well as sole lyricist, Claudio Ravinale.

From a purely musical perspective, we are presented with an extremely mature product, excellently produced, recorded, and mixed at the infamous Fredman Studio, boasting explosive Swedish-influenced sound, yet not devoid of its own identity: it's true, we are talking about a genre now at dusk (so much so that many masters of the genre are increasingly abandoning it to embrace the star-spangled, catchier metalcore influences), overly explored and abused, in which the search for originality almost stalled at its inception.

But that's the point: the Italian Disarmonia Mundi certainly don't waste time in a futile search for a formula that could innovate and bring fresh air into the classic stylistic features of the genre in question. No, much more prosaically and modestly, they aim to make their melodic death metal as effective and engaging as possible: therefore, compared to previous works (particularly in comparison to the second album "Fragments of D-generation"), with the excellent "Mind Tricks" they have focused more on an excellent focus on "catchy" melody in service of a remarkable demonstration of power, without forgetting a certain flair in crafting all 11 songs (for a total duration of 45 minutes) contained on this record. Synths, various effects, complex use of vocals that play a lot between Strid's growl and the more death/black background of Ravinate, come to the aid of songs already well-conceived and executed.

Truly astonishing is the work done by Rigotti: playing all instruments with the precision and cleanliness he maintains is no small feat, even though one might maliciously argue that technology nowadays works miracles in this regard.

Thus, deserving a note of merit are the opening trio, i.e., "Resurrection Code", the title track, and "Celestial Furnace" (for which an enjoyable video was made), for their impressive impact and fascinating melodies, the eighty flavored "A Taste of Collapse" and the catchy "Venom Leech and the Hands of Rain", while a thumbs down for the absolutely derivative (almost a plagiarism against At the Gates) "Last Breed". Note the presence as the last track of the album of the cover "Mouth of War" by Pantera: it can be safely said that the combative spirit of Phil Anselmo and company is perfectly represented here without any minimal change, in fact, even the type of sounds closely resembles the original. Faithful reproduction.

In conclusion, I highly recommend "Mind Tricks" to anyone wanting three-quarters of an hour of classy headbanging, singing at the top of their lungs the many refrains present therein.

You won't regret it.