Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Use Less
Release: 2010
Length: 20:06
Rating: 4/5
Two years after their first officially released recording, 3 Little Statements of Life, Kamnik heavy metal band Use Less are back with a new demo, Mind Collapse. It’s a good twenty-minute trip down the street of pure-blooded heavy metal, and it’s great to hear that amid the flood of thrash and black metal bands lately, there’s also a relatively new group keeping the primal sound of metal alive. And not in a useless or pointless way, as the band’s name might suggest!
Use Less kick things off by hitting you hard with a proper heavy metal wrecker, Burning Bridges, a reminder that these guys weren’t crying over Clint Eastwood’s emotional outbursts in The Bridges of Madison County, but cheering for the partisans in The Battle of Sutjeska and The Battle of Neretva. After an intro that’s slightly reminiscent of the System of a Down tune Toxicity, the fuse reaches the explosives and “all hell breaks loose” as Use Less hurl us into a whirlwind of classic yet more modern-sounding heavy metal. The guys serve up four courses of top-notch melodies, mostly courtesy of perfectly sharpened guitars with a rich variety of riffing and soloing that’s there mainly to elevate the song, not for a dick-measuring contest. The individual instruments don’t stick out too much from the overall sound anyway; instead they complement and weave into each other effectively. The guitar tandem on one side and the rhythm section on the other work great together, the latter diligently delivering that much-needed deep, torpedo-like sound. The nicely varied and dynamic bass lines are especially impressive, sneaking to the surface at just the right moments and enriching the sharp, cutting riffs with a full, thick tone. The demo also benefits from fitting production that’s lively and dynamic while being just dirty and rough enough to avoid sounding sterile and overpolished. Compared to the first demo, the progress is definitely audible across the board, but most of all in the vocals. Rok Tavčar isn’t a vocalist with innate talent, but one who keeps developing an ever better voice through hard work. The vocal lines are far more elaborate this time, sung with even more heart, and the clean, melodic vocals are a good few notches better. The individual songs are also much more varied and polished this time, and they’re slotted into place more effectively than before. So the two central tracks, the slightly more playful and cheeky Bedtime Story (“I don’t need your number šećeru”) and the incredibly powerful, emotional ballad The Challenge of Love, are flanked by proper heavy metal bangers at the start and end. The closing Mind Collapse finally brings the house down with unbridled energy that smells faintly of later-era Savatage, while the phenomenal ballad calms the tempo before that peak. The Challenge of Love may even be the band’s best achievement so far (at least compositionally), reveling in a breathtaking build-up and rising tension, carried above all by the brilliant vocals that sing a personal lyric with real feeling.
Mind Collapse is without a doubt a huge leap in quality over 3 Little Statements of Life. It’s proof that the guys didn’t rest on the laurels of a well-received first demo, but spat in their hands and got to work even harder, emerging as a far more mature and cohesive crew than before. There’s still plenty of room for improvement, but even comparing the band’s two releases makes it clear they’re more than capable of that kind of growth. Mind Collapse is a strong, confident release, suggesting that if they keep this up, Use Less could be an even bigger force on the Slovenian heavy metal scene than they are today. Use More Use Less!
Lineup
Matej Osredkar – lead guitar
Toni Novak – drums
Grega Stamenović – bass
Rok Tavčar – vocals
Primož Grkman – rhythm guitar
Production
Sašo Gostinčar and Use Less
Tracklist
1. Burning Bridges
2. Bedtime Story
3. The Challenge of Love
4. Mind Collapse
