Well, I’ll try to go straight to the point: this folks, is truly a decent album of the early 20’s, maybe one of the nice surprises about the alternative sound. It may be not be as good as many famous bands that have released a lot of albums, but Monkey Mind from Cyprus succeed to produce some rich sound. This is a good work that reveals interesting musicianship and songwriting. While “Breakdown” sounds like a very experimental release (almost difficult to set the borders between rock and metal), this is a bit heavier and manages to come back with the spirit contained in albums from Metallica and Paradise Lost from the early 90s
If I’d make a guess list of my most played albums through the last weeks, “Breakdown” would be one of my top guesses. This album represents a big change in sound and a slight change in lyricism in the normal alternative rock-metal direction.
The opening homonymous track is a good representation of the overall feeling. Semi distorted double guitars portray a deep feeling of intension presented in a fine tuned alternative punk-rock environment. One of the great things about “Breakdown” is how the tracks seem to flow together flawlessly. During the first three songs the mood shifts perfectly although the production is really raw but fortunately the musicians sound great.
Despite the major changes, the individual songs flow like running water. Monkey Mind make good use of dynamics as well. Interesting bass lines and acoustic guitars are used to spice it up! Aesthetically, this album is much cleaner than alternative metal, both in terms of vocals and instruments. Vocally, all traces of screams and raw sound are just used as elements that differentiate from the clean vocal approach. This is not a bad thing since “Breakdown” features excellent vocals in terms of both technical performance and feeling.
The songs are mostly based within a verse/chorus format with some slight variations. Once again, this is not a bad thing. Monkey Mind knows how to express their emotions and feelings.
I really fail to find anything negative to say about the album despite the raw production and the unique style of the band. Listen and you will agree. This is damn good.
