Mind & Flesh — Martyr Generation

Mind & Flesh is the latest solo project of Norwegian artist Anders B., whose previous forays into the world of industrial music consisted of Katabol Prosess (one self-produced cassette release in the mid-nineties) and Babyflesh (two albums on Italy’s Slaughter Prod and Norway’s Vendlus Records in 2002 and 2005 respectively). The tracks on this, his first album under the Mind & Flesh moniker, were actually recorded between 2005 and 2008 but have only seen a proper release this year thanks to the good folks at Force Majeure, a sub-label of the (rightly) famous Lille-based Nuit et Brouillard.

Genre tags are obviously only ever so good and meaningful as you allow them to be but if death-industrial is what the Force Majeure promo sheet describes this, their seventh production as, I myself would actually be more tempted to place it firmly in the power electronics camp. While the two are not mutually exclusive, you’re more likely to appreciate this slab of music if you’re into Genocide Organ or Anenzephalia rather than, say, In Slaughter Natives. Actually, let me re-phrase that: you *would* be more likely to appreciate this slab of music if it didn’t happen to sound so damn generic and managed to lift itself above sub-par more than it actually does.

Interestingly enough, all the ingredients are here: punishing electronics, walls of white noise, pounding rhythms and suitably scorched vocals. Yet, they somehow fail to blend into a meaningful whole that could shake off, if only for a moment, the cringing feeling of teenage angst that permeates throughout and makes the material sound downright forced at times. Very seldom indeed did I find myself eager to aim for the repeat knob. As a matter of fact, that only happened eight tracks into the record and even that is a collaboration with Norwegian visual artist-cum-musician Kim Solve – who also co-penned the first track on the album and designed the cover art. Damn, even the Atrax Morgue-penned Purgatorium did not bring solace. Come the ultimate track, a ten-minute ambient-ish exercise that gives the album a quieter, more reflective ending, I found myself wondering whether the artist really had something to tell when he penned those tracks.

In this day and age of musical mass-consumption, it is ultimately records like these that give the downloading crowd a point when they unilaterally decide to pinch a record before contemplating buying the physical product. If you truly care about your power electronics, you’re more than likely to have heard a lot better than this before. Unfortunately, I realise now who the martyr generation is that Anders had in mind when naming the album.