Mordred
Vision

The visions of Mordred are hinted at right from the colorful, subliminal, and futuristic cover: "My vision is a part of me /My mind interprets all I see/ A perception of reality/ Create a world in which I see". You can sense the extremity of sounds and style that are completed in this mini-LP, dense with novelties, too many in truth, which tend to disorient the listener: not because of the length or complexity of the pieces, but due to the fragmentation of the union of various sonic humus, patches of pop here and there and heavy mended with rap.

If in the previous LP "In This Life" thrash was the starting point, remaining as a faithful servant in the manor, albeit with its due bows to rap and funk, in "Vision" it is just an ingredient that re-emerges faintly, timidly, as if it were ashamed to join the little party: it looks at the various songs like a shy child exploring an unfamiliar house when parents visit friends and chat in the living room. Mordred find themselves at a crossroads: to extreme the proven formula with the previous work, or to return to the Bay Area fold as in the debut album. The Americans opt for the exile of thrash to the Underworld and the ascent of funk to the heights of the Californian skies. Paradoxically, all this happens when the singer Scott Holderby, always adorned as a rapper from Frisco, completes his maturation as a lyricist and signs four tracks of the album, showcasing a warmer and more energetic voice, which unfolds through six episodes, sometimes somber and sometimes more dynamic. The lineup does not change, for the first time in Mordred's history, and the producer is still the excellent Michael Rosen aided by Vincent Wojno.

"In Time", the most incisive track on the album, is the super funk opener where DJ Pause and his inventions find ample space, starting from the sounds that initially accompany the well-recited verses by Holderby: the rhythm is extravagant, unkempt, smiling in sound and does not change register even when the smoothed thrashy guitars enter and the pathos of the minstrel Scott rises. The solos arrive almost like streamers and so we find a tasty wah-wah reminiscent of that created by the Oliver Onions in the soundtrack of "Io sto con gli ippopotami", a film of the Spencer-Hill duo, in the scene of the lunch at "thief Ormond's" house, while a more decided and heavy solo closes the track. A sad song full of melancholy, strangely having the power to make us regret the sound of the guitars when we hear it advancing; indeed we would wish they had played a whole album with that charming mixture. "West County Hospital" is the ballad of the album where the vicissitudes of hospital patients are painted, with a heavy/thrash background. Scott's emotional voice takes us to a sinister world:

"Because of society I never have relationships/I have been locked up, tied, and sedated/And there were others with me/Locked away by their families/When will they learn that we can't live in their realities/But inside I knew I had to rise/I knew I had to do something/Someday even just for love/They try to scare you/Structuring the way to behave/They take all your dignity/Transformed into senseless slaves/Seen from inside/Under fluorescent light/Ritalin and Thorazine have clouded my will to fight..."

Even the solo of the song denotes itself as more violent, even hiccups in the high-pitched sounds, almost a musical invective. After laying down the two most consistent aces, Mordred lose a little bit of direction. Starting from the third track, the album loses vigor. "The Vagrant" is an ordinary funk piece, undecided in the direction to take, whereas "Reach" is noted for Scott’s effective refrain and nothing more. The two axes, Sanguinetti and White, always remain in the background, timidly hiding their heavy metal, while the rhythm section seems more comfortable in this galaxy of sounds, where there is also glory for DJ Pause who discovers himself as a vocalist with "Close Minded", a piece of rap mixed with nebulized thrash riffs: fun and subtly melancholic. The album concludes with the nimble rhythm of "Vision", which is a potpourri of all the sounds of the album where Holderby, at times, imitates the voice of Alice Cooper a bit. It leaves a bit of a bitter taste since some ideas, if developed with a heavier sound, would have produced more vigorous songs, perhaps with sampled voices to support acoustic breaks that are guilty absent here, except for "West County Hospital". For example, the beginning of "Reach", and the refrain, if sung more quickly, would have acquired a new melodic dimension.

The band's relationship with Scott Holderby ends this way (for reasons unknown to me) and this mini-LP does not achieve the hoped-for success. The group turns the page by taking on a new singer, that Paul Kimball, from a hardcore background, who will give the band the last excellent quality thrills (but not in sales) along with Noise Records.