Mind Prisoner was formed in the bitterly cold and humid Pacific Northwest during the global pandemic of 2020. The duo developed a distinctive tone which evokes anguish and hopelessness, influenced mainly by the edgiest kinds of extreme metal.
In January 2023, Mind Prisoner released their five-track, self-titled debut EP, all drenched in utter darkness. Black metal, death metal, and doom metal elements are all interconnected into Mind Prisoner's sound, which is best described as a combination of heaviness and lyricism, an aberrant sludge metal approach, with all aforementioned styles vying for the spotlight, while lurking in the background of the project's compositional atmosphere.
Ritual and 11:11, the EP's first two songs, establish the EP's gloomy mood, and by the time Garden of Bones, a blackened death metal track, arrives, the listener is completely engrossed, with the band demonstrating their songwriting strengths. Before Angels Leave can claim the title of the album's most fully realized track, 2:22 dethrones it with an outstanding eight and a half-minute piece whose gothic atmosphere blends seamlessly with the extreme brutality, creating an overarchingly damnable atmosphere.
Even if the dialogue samplings occasionally become a little too intense or overplayed, Mind Prisoner still go to show how capable they can be in bringing their own brand of weightiness, and to call their self-titled EP a promising endeavor is a restrained statement.
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