Brainstorm (at least on this album) sound like a cross between Slipknot and Disturbed. Which sounds delicious until you realise it’s a mix of the offcuts of their worst albums. Pretty uninspiring stuff. On to the Brainfart…

 

Forsake What I Believed is slow and powerful. Foreboding. This is the best track on the album. You can pretty much end your listen here, the rest is pretty bland.

Shiver is… Yup, bland.

The Conjunction of 7 Planets is a tad better. There’s a bit of Dance of Death Iron Maiden-esque grandness in the intro and backbone of the song. It does get a bit monotonous halfway through though.

Cross the Line – Of good taste. This track is punchier, but still a bit flat.

Nailed Down Dreams of better albums. A synth laden intro leads into monotonous droning.

Blood Still Stains. These songs all have great intros… Then they fall away. This one is better than most though. Probably my favourite of the album.

Ahimsa is faster, but soulless.

The Final Stages of Decay has an AC/DC / Iced Earth intro… There’s just no power here. It’s like listening to something really heavy and powerful through a waterfall. It’s just not coming through. The solo section is pretty good, but it’s got no backup. Especially from the second synth heavy solo.

Victim – I’m feeling like the victim here. This track isn’t too bad though, one of the better ones.

When No One Cares …You remix an old album in the hopes of rekindling former glory? The line ‘Suffering in your false belief’ – is a great description of what I’m doing in listening to this album.

Would You – No, I wouldn’t.

Seems to be Perfect – I would disagree with the song title. The guitars are great, but it’s just not interesting.

Too Late to Deny …that this was a bad idea. If this is a remix, I’m not sure I want to hear the original.

Nothing …can save this album, not even a rehash. Nothing to see here, move along.

Honesty …is supposed to be the best policy. I can honestly say I’m not enjoying this album. Honesty is slow and has more presence than most of the other tracks, but it’s too little, too late.

Forsake What I Believed (edit) – Sounds familiar. Easily the best intro of the album. So good they did it twice? I suppose this is the radio edit. This version is missing one minute and 22 seconds of meh. That’s probably the best I can say about it. Or did they put their best song on here twice to try to make up for the rest? I’m not falling for it. Even if they did, it’s only 11 minutes and 41 seconds out of one hour and 12 minutes of blergh. So around 15% of this album is good and it’s a double up. So really only around 7%. Why did I get out of bed this morning?

Overall, the sound is a bit one dimensional. It’s good, but it’s lacking depth. Technically Brainstorm are really good, it’s just lacking something.

I don’t need a patch, or any more time spent listening to this album.

I’m sure this is blowing someone’s mind somewhere, totally redefining their all too brief existence on this mortal coil… It’s just not here.

 

Memorial Roots – Re-Rooted is out now on AFM Records. Avoid.