Metal Reviews

Musicianship, effort, and style. 3 things that sadly many bands who crowd the market are lacking.

Musicianship: For such young musicians, these guys play like seasoned veterans. I'm blown away at how tight the band functions as a single unit, while allowing enough space for each person to show their talents.

Effort: From amount of work that goes into the presentation of the albums to the production that is so polished you can use it as a shaving mirror, Pagan's Mind show what commitment is all about. When buying an album I check to see how much effort has been put into the presentation. If the package looks half-arsed, then the quality of the music probably is too. As for the production, every single instrument can be heard. If you are a drum, bass, guitar or vocals fan you can follow each instrument clearly even when all are playing together at full force. That bass drum sound gets a worthy mention.

Style: In the sleeve notes in enigmatic:calling there is a not-so subtle reference to the flood of black and death metal from the Nordic countries smothering other metal styles. Now I'm not bashing these genres as they have their own niche market and followers, but Pagan's Mind show that Norway produces excellent musicianship in metal as well. The proggie style that the band uses also keeps the music interesting and fresh everytime you go back to an album. No matter how many times I listen to them I always find something I didn't notice before.


Love em!

A fine band, indeed. I first heard Celestial Entrance, and I wasn't very impressed with it. Then I picked up the reissue of Infinity Divine and something clicked. I loved it (the King Diamond cover is amazing!). I gave Celestial Entrance another chance and that also clicked. I think it's their weakest, but it's much, much better than I initially thought.

Enigmatic: Calling is awesome!

Excellent band! One of the best Prog bands out there right now.

It's hard to stand out in the prog/power genre. The market is oversaturated with technical wizards that don't know shit about writing memorable music. Show all the musical profiency you want, but if you don't write something that sticks in my head and makes me want to pull it off the shelf, then you're just another prog/power metal band.

Pagan's Mind is one of the better bands of the genre. Also check out Circus Maximus and Pantommind if you haven't already.

Pagan's Mind are indeed the cools, and they can transfer it to the live environment brilliantly. Jorn played one of the best solo spots I've ever seen and it lasted barely a minute! Other than that they were just unbelievably tight for a band that plays such complex stuff.

Wanky, I suggest you do as Trans-Siberian Outcast says and listen to Circus Maximus (also Norwegian), they only have the one album so far.

B-Grade prog metal definately, but A-Grade metal.

I shall add them to my wish list.