If the name MINDWARS rings a bell, it’s probably because you’re blessed with a special musical taste, as “Mind Wars” was the title of the second album of the great, yet always underrated L.A. based Speed / Thrash Metal band HOLY TERROR. Following their split in 1991, most of the members never really appeared again in new bands, only guitar player Kurt Kilfelt kept on being active. His counterpart on the other guitar was Mike Alvord, who took a long break from the scene after he left HOLY TERROR. But he tasted Metal blood again in 2013 and took a fresh start with MINDWARS. Soon this band became a pretty busy one, as they released four albums on small labels every two years. After a break of four years, their fifth album was put out by the band itself half a year ago. Inspiringly titled ”V”, the album was now re-released by the dedicated German record label High Roller Records in all three classical formats. Even though the band name MINDWARS might hint on a successor of HOLY TERROR, we have something different here. Most of the songs on “V” can hardly be categorized as Speed Metal, only ‘Crusaders’ might pass as a classic Speed tune. Instead the sound of MINDWARS is mainly based in midtempo with just a few faster parts. Yet it is still Thrash Metal, spiced with a very good dose of classic US Power Metal and very rare modern sounding moments. The hoarse voice of Mike Alvord fits the sound of MINDWARS really well, so the foundations are laid for a really good album. But after some spins of the album, I’m still not very fond of “V”. To my ears, there are not too many moments on the album that excel. Most of the time, the songs are somewhere in between decent and solid. But I miss the moments that really made me sit up. It’s only ‘Live To Die’ and the already mentioned ‘Crusaders’ that stick out a little bit. And the final cover tune ‘The Logical Song’, originally by SUPERTRAMP, is quite nice, maybe because it doesn’t sound like the horrible original any longer. In the end I can only say that I ain’t really convinced of “V”, but it’s possibly because I expected too much because Mike Alvord was involved. For more, visit www.facebook.com/mindwarsband or www.facebook.com/hrrecords