Album: "Momentum"
Label: Metropolis Records (2004)
Style: Electro industrial / EBM
Songs: 13

Reviewed by: Darklight

Mindless Faith (MF) are back after four years to deliver their best album yet. I have always liked the music of MF, but felt that they never quite tapped their full potential in the past. But they have learned a lot over the years, and return in style with this high octane Momentum album.

What the band does this time out is take all of their strengths and combine them into one solid structured sound. They take industrial noise and distorted guitar and mix it with EBM, techno and trance for an outcome of energetic and exciting music.

There's a lot of variety here, and it all works well together. There's straight forward industrial strength, semi experimental electro, and dark somber moments as well.

In the past MF was always brought down by poor production, but that's not a problem here. This is a very high quality, finely crafted, nicely polished recording with a clean sound through and through.

As much as I like this album, I'm not happy with the two remixes from their previous Manifest Destiny album mixed in with the new album songs. The remixes are good, but definitely sound old compared to their new music. While it's my opinion that MF shouldn't have included remixes for songs from their four year old Manifest Destiny album, they could have at least included them at the end of the CD as bonus tracks instead of mixing them in with the new tracks. Because even though the album flows decently with the remixes mixed in with the new songs, it would have flowed even better with them placed at the end as bonus tracks.

Album: "Manifest Destiny" (2000)
Label: Alter Culture Records
Style: Electro industrial/coldwave
Songs: 13

Reviewed by: Darklight

This CD contains thirteen excellent tracks ranging from intense guitar driven heavy industrial rock to dark melodic electro industrial. This band does a great job of mixing a lot of variety into each of their songs here. The CD kicks off with the electro industrial/coldwave hybrid song entitled "Vultures". This track contains energetic electronic programming, distorted guitar, hard drum beats and shouting vocals. This is the type of song that you would want to crank loud and dance or mosh to out on a club dance floor. The next track "Stars & Stripes & Satellites" is a darker more moody track with mid-tempo electronic programming and deep melodic singing. These two songs are good representations of the remainder of the CD. There are hard and heavy aggressive guitar driven industrial rock songs, as well as more pure electronic songs with a dark haunting edge. There are even a couple of really good instrumentals. So no matter what style of industrial music you enjoy, it's most likely contained on this disc. The songs here are primarily created with electronic programming, sequencing and sampling featuring energetic rhythms and beats. Distorted guitar usually only kicks in during the chorus' of the more rocking songs to give them a little more oomph. Each song manages to sound different allowing them to all stand out on their own. They're very well constructed with a lot of interesting and creative ideas throughout. They're placed in a good order as well letting the CD flow smoothly from start to finish. There's a good blend of various moods, feelings and emotions constantly being released to give the music a passionate punch. There's nothing dull or boring here. Everything will hold your interest, and keep you coming back for more. This album actually sounds better after repeated listens in my opinion. You really start to take in all of its diversity after you hear it a few times. While each song is indeed good, I do feel that some stand out. I especially enjoy the songs "Vultures", "Descent (Our Way Down)", "All These Years", "Mere Pawn", "Contaminated" and "Strained". The only problem that I have with this CD is the somewhat muffled recording. It does have a bit of a low-budget amateurish sound to it. But this is a minor gripe considering the overall quality of the songs here. I just hope that the band cleans up their sound a little more on their next release.

Album: "The Silence" (1995)
Label: Alter Culture Productions
Style: Electro industrial
Songs: 12

Reviewed by: Darklight

This album pulls you in right from the start with "Prodigy". It's dark and heavy with unique uses of electronics, haunting synths, sampled guitar and slightly distorted vocals. It's very energy packed and holds your attention. It does have changes where it's a bit melodic and then builds and explodes with adrenaline. It could be considered a Cyber-Core/Coldwave song due to it having a guitar thrashy edge. The next song "About To Break" is completely different. It's dark, moody and melodic created with electronics and synths. There are also samples in the mix that make the sound very full and complete while creating a hypnotic atmosphere. The vocals are clean and sing rather calm and relaxed. Song three "Vision" continues this dark and melodic style with electronics, sound samples, synths, piano and relaxed vocals. It's a beautiful song with a touch of harshness thrown in to keep the listener wondering where it's going to take them next. Song four "Regrets" explodes with angst driven energy onceagain. Noisy scratchy electronics that go haywire combined with heavy drum beats and distorted anger fueled vocals is what is delivered here. Song five "The Silence" slows things down again with a very dark and cold mood with piano and eerie wind effects combined with clean and melodic singing. This is a very beautiful song with a haunting edge to it that leans toward goth. Song six "Open Up" begins with a rather long instrumental intro that mixes acoustic guitar, scratchy electronics, heavy drum beats and samples. After a while singing makes an appearance and background synths are layered into the sound. The variety presented here is outstanding. Song seven "Untitled Intro" begins with bass guitar, synths and some electronics. Drums and whispered vocals eventually come in, and before you know what hit you thrashy guitar blasts onto the scene giving the song a heavy edge. This is basically just a short instrumental, but it's good. Song eight "Days Of Bread And Circus" starts off dark and heavy with electronics, guitars, drums and clean singing vocals. The song goes into a funky synth/acoustic guitar mixture for a while, and then switches back to it's original heavy form once again. The creativity is excellent. Song nine "The Curb" begins with the sound of birds chirping and slowly morphs into a dark, cold and moody atmosphere with heavy drum beats combined with electronics and great synth harmonies blended with well sung vocals. Song ten "Remnant" is heavy and harsh with malfunctioning electronics, drums, guitars and angry vocals. Song eleven "The Stronger" begins with piano and then scratchy electronics, drums and emotional vocals burst into action making the song hard and heavy. Toward the middle of the song the piano takes center stage combined with a dark synth melody building slowly giving the song a haunting edge. Scratchy electronics, heavy drum beats and whispered evil vocals come back to end the song. It's very powerful and emotional with a good use of variety and experimentation. Song twelve "Desert Wind" starts off with the sound of rain and then an acoustic guitar and an uplifting synth melody combined with slow vocals make an appearance. This is a good song to end the album with, but it's just too slow and tame for me. It's the only song here that dislike. This album delivers a lot of variety. There is something here for every industrial music fan out there.