Mind Spiders

Heading into their fifth record Mind Spiders are dispensing with much of their garage trappings (what little remained) and plunging headlong into full dystopian synth-punk. They’ve long been lingering around the sound but with an embrace of drum pads and prominent placement on those hornet-buzzing keys, their transition is complete. The sound is cold and caustic with just the right strain of dark nihilism pumping through its veins. Though they’d do well to look to fellow synth-punks Ausmuteants for a course in how to make this strain of future punk sound just slightly unhinged, giving it a double dose of wild-eyed prophesying and tin-hat menace.

Furies, it would seem, revolves around a return of the old gods to reign down their displeasure on humanity, doling out their wrath in supernatural waves via synth squelch. Given their old-world inspiration the band could easily start reaching for Iliad inspired lengths. They opt for brevity instead, however, kicking this thing in just over 30 min. It seems the new uprising isn’t spiraling out to prog-rock time tables just yet, though they seem willing to try in the future, if the 8+ minute closer is any indication. All around, another solid offering from a band that’s too often billed as what Mark Ryan did after Marked Men. They’ve long since come into their own and are figuring out how to carve their icy negativity into barbed anthems. Here they’ve come as close as ever to nailing the formula.