'Dark Side of Mind' is the debut record from Northern Finland's (Oulu) power metallers. I have to admit, that I haven't heard their newer album 'Connecting Animals' (2000).

Opener is a short intro-type song, but the title track really is quality power metal. 'To the Afterworld's Iron Maiden-ish guitar solo sounds nice. Next one is Stratovarius-type thing... So one thing, that lowers the quality of otherwise good songs, is writing, which isn't unique. Afterworld have gathered some great influences (much of these come clearly from 1980s), but the originality... Where is it?!

Playing sounds joyful. Guitars screech and there's a lot of drums, believe me. Everything is precise (except weirder rhythm changes on 'Virtual Angel') and sound is powerful, too. Immu Ilmarinen sat behind mixing desk. Sound is lively, especially drums sound that way, which is cool by any means. Drummer Jani Outinen played synths on this one, but they are quite one-dimensional and not at all individual, but Uillean Pipes on 'Touch of Hate' sound great, sounding Irish, plus pretty much Sentenced-esque ('Amok' era [1995]). 'Sixteen Innocent Children's powerful guitar wouldn't be out of place on a modern death metal record! This music truly deserves the monicker "power metal", just unlike many of power metal bands of today. Duration of the album is too long and intro/outro and short, a crap instrumental 'The Silence of the End' should have been left out.

Vocals add some of the needed originality. They are untypical for power metal. Middle register of Mika Kuokkanen is in much use. But sad thing is, that there are notes he can't hit (higher ones). For example choruses of 'Lost in the Dark' and 'Virtual Angel' are awful. They simply sound bad. If the vocalist can't hit the notes needed, change them. This is much worse solution. But they are original and when they work, they sound okay. This happens way too seldomly, so singing lessons should be taken (if not taken already)!

Joe Petagno's cover art looks like it's made in a hurry. Otherwise the package is meager, as lyrics haven't been printed. Just guys' photos, which all turned out badly.

Energetic playing and powerful production versus unoriginality of the music and partly very bad vocals. Darker feel is also plus among all too happy power metal bands. 'Sixteen Innocent Children' is clearly a highlight on this one. A bloody good track! I hope this is Afterworld's direction.

Rating: 6 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
10/25/2002 15:46