Being literally mad at myself for my inability to come up with anything reasonable to say about this mini-CD for quite a long time, I decided to make myself listen to it over and over again until some lines of wisdom are so kind to come and rescue me. And you know what? This experiment turned out to be very far from a torture one may expect listening to some nowadays Metal to be. Though it wouldn’t be fair to put a disgraceful brand of modern Metal on this release, as the mainman in charge of it in no way may be called a child of modern Metal. As Voices readers (or should you be called listeners to voices from the darkside?) may already know, at least those who bothered to have a look at the Frank Gosdzik feature, MYSTIC is the new band of the man who used to bring forth some killer Thrash in SODOM and KREATOR under the name of Frank Blackfire. As a matter of fact, my very first impression was that I was listening to some KREATOR rehearsal circa 1992-1995. Not that MYSTIC turned out to be like that indeed in the end, but those primae impressions are so hard to get rid of, you know. Moreover, a track like ‘Insane Human Race’, for example, would fit on the "Renewal" album just perfectly, I believe. But even though this release has more to do with dull 90s Thrash than with exciting and glorious 80s one, nevertheless it’s possible to feel the spirit of real Thrash here and there. One just must tune him / herself to "deep listening" and be aware of what that spirit should be like at all, of course. Deep listening must be the keywords here, as it’s definitely rather "sit, listen and enjoy" type of music than "let’s bang some heads" one. It’s all too calm, I’m afraid, too composed. It’s definitely a product of a made, mature and experienced musician, not of some young and hungry one. And that’s what is bringing it a bit down. I miss some madness here, some raw power and uncontrolled primeval aggression – in the other words, the things we used to love classic Thrash and Metal in general for. But that’s rather a matter of personal preferences than anything to reproach MYSTIC with. What this release really lacks is a decent producer, because without him it sounds more like a good demo. Just the basic ideas, main structures and melodies, not a finalized product. If you ask me, it seems like Frank really needed this release to prove above all to himself that he still knows how to write some good Thrash tunes and his guitar is still able to produce a handful of exciting riffs. Well, I guess he really did succeed in it. In the end I was convinced as well, therefore even to just sit and listen to his distinctive guitar playing was quite a pleasant experience, not a torture I was talking about at all. I guess by now none have any doubts about his skills, so there’s no need to praise his ability to handle a guitar and tell you that the guitars rule supreme here. Somehow his guitar is easy to recognize wherever Frank plays it, I believe that’s exactly what many guitarists would be ready to kill for to achieve. And those words of wisdom I was waiting for, you may ask, what about them, eh? Well, forget it, they never came. Contact: pingapuckel@hotmail.com