UMUR
Mindloss is the debut full-length studio album by Dutch death metal act Gorefest. The album was released by Foundation 2000 Records in 1991. The album has seen a couple of re-issues. The most interesting one is from 2005. That version includes the Tangled in Gore (1989) and the Horrors in a Retarded Mind (1990) demos on a second disc.
The music on the album is old school death metal featuring the really deep brutal growling vocals by lead vocalist/ bassist Jan-Chris De Koeijer. Now that´s the kind of growls that will blow your speakers and make something implode deep in your chest. 8 out of the 10 tracks on the album were also featured on the two demo tapes, so the only "new" tracks on the album are the short intro and Mental Misery. The latter is one of the best tracks on the album. It´s a bit of a shame that the band chose to include all tracks from the two demos on Mindloss, because the quality of the tracks vary. Tracks like Confessions of a Serial Killer and Horrors in a Retarded Mind, both from the 1990 Horrors in a Retarded Mind demo, are excellent brutal death metal tracks with some great recognisable hooks, while most of the tracks from the 1989 Tangled in Gore demo have a hard time living up to the high standards of those tracks. I wouldn´t call Mindloss an inconsistent album by any means, but there are just a couple of tracks that could have been more interesting.
All in all the album is pretty great though and my critique above actually shouldn´t be regarded as more than a minor complaint. Mindloss is one of the soundtracks to my early youth and while I don´t worship Mindloss like I used to anymore, I still greatly enjoy listening to the album on occassion. A 3.5 star rating is deserved.