Review: “Two Minds” by Old Selves

“‘Two Minds is a story about Old Selves and the minds of the people we share the world with. We strived to make Two Minds be made up of pounding, emotion triggering and straight up head-bang-worthy tunes that evidence the development and growing strength of this band, but also the universal times that we all live in. This is our lockdown gift to you”.  ~ Felix Manders-Wilde

A fiery four-piece metal band based in York, Old Selves have chosen New Years day 2021 to mark a new beginning and to release their debut EP “Two Minds“, produced and mastered by Ben Stuart-Brown. Not an entirely new entity, the quartet had released a pair of singles in “Strength In Four” and “Breathing Space” between November 2019 and February 2020 respectively, but have chosen to cut them adrift with six new tracks set to make their mark.

Citing a glut of intense rehearsals in which the band not only crafted enough unique material to produce their debut EP but also tightened their sound and made a slew of progressive changes as the reason that those songs were left behind, Old Selves set the tone with “Sonnet for Sorrow“, a single verse introduction piece that has some icy cold synth moments and a distinctly Architects, Progressive Metalcore vibe to it. The title track gives us something to bang our heads to with some solid riffs and interesting lead licks that provide a more unique sound with frontman and guitarist Felix Manders-Wilde showing off some more wide ranging vocals. They’ve been layered up neatly so underneath you get this Death Metal backing vocal that you might not even notice the first time around with his main vocal on top doing the same lines; the two separate slightly in the final third which is where it really pays off. Burying some electronics into the mix with “Population” sees the band switch their game up while still having a distinctly Metalcore vibe about them; chant-able vocal sections will go down a storm at bigger live shows among their core fanbase, while the Technical solo to finale is really something else.

Ambient piece “Lost” is the cold wind introduction to first single “444” that tears the roof off by the time the chorus hits with big hooks and driving guitars and the call and response of “Panic… Breathe” another one for the live shows. Hard-hitting, emotive and groove laden, it’s one that is an obvious choice as a single and has everything you could possibly want in a such a track, including some Lamb of God esq moments in the back end. Then comes the twist in the tale, the thing that all good thrillers have in “Seat in the Hall“. While it maintains some of the heavier parts it also introduces melody and clean vocal parts hither to unheard, adding a depth and complexity only to be matched by some vibrant solo parts. It will certainly be interesting to see which direction they take from here as it seems they have so much more to offer on this evidence, despite the strength of it [8/10]

Track listing

  1. Sonnet for Sorrow
  2. Two Minds
  3. Population
  4. Lost
  5. 444
  6. Seat in the Hall

Two Minds” by Old Selves is out 1st January 2021 with pre-orders available over at bandcamp

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