Mind Snare – 33 Curses at the Nazarene

vote
6.5

• Band:
  Mind Snare
• Duration: 00:40:03
• Available from: 28/03/2025
• Label:

• Punishment 18 Records

Streaming not yet available

The Mind Snare finally return to the scenes with “33 Curses at the Nazarene”, a job that, if initially presented as a new album, actually proves to be a collection of songs from the old repertoire, re-recorded to celebrate the thirty-three years of career of the group. The Piedmontese band, activates in a discontinuous way in recent decades, was considered a prominent name in the Underground Death of our own metal between the late nineties and the first two thousand, thanks to a solid and absolutely credible proposal both on the compositional and executive level.
Always inspired above all by the American Death Metal in its most angular and at the same time traditional form, the Mind Snare drew with full hands from the sound of Deicide, Morbid Angel and the first immolations, without however neglecting some European influences, with the first Sinister as the main reference. All this also shines through “33 Curses at the Nazarene”, which proposes with an updated guise a selection of the most representative songs of their discography. Among the most significant releases of the band we mention the EP “Hegemony” (1999) and the debut album “Hateful Attitude” (2000), well composed works, but which unfortunately at the time they did not benefit from a large distribution or a strong promotional support. On closer inspection, the graphic design also left to be desired, but the musical content already demonstrated then the quality and competence of the group.
By listening to these songs today, it clearly emerges how the Mind Snare were an inspired and prepared reality, with a sound and an interpretation from the international breath. Of course, training has changed over time and some differences compared to the line-up that engraved the original works are perceptible: for example, here we feel the absence of a more pronounced bass work, once taken care of by the singer/bass player Gigi Casini, now outside the band for years. Despite this, the new incarnation of the group proves to be up to the task: moreover, we speak of highly experienced musicians, among which today we also find the guitarist Andrea “Ciccio” Aimone, leader of the best known Putridities.
To embellish the work tracklist we find “Black Flights”, an unpublished that does not differ from the band's consolidated stylistic features, but which is particularly effective in its immediacy and in its authoritarian incede. This song shows that the Mind Snare still have something to say and that it would be interesting to see them measure with a new album of unpublished in the near future.
Ultimately, “33 Curses at the Nazarene” is a nostalgia operation that allows historical fans to rediscover many mini-hits in an updated version, with a rough and effective production, while the new listeners offers an overview of what made the Mind Snare a band a very respected band in the Underground Death Metal in our house. Now it remains to be seen if the group beat the iron until it is hot, perhaps with an entirely new album, to reaffirm its role in the extreme Italian scene.