Album Review: Suspended -Hollowed Minds

This album embodies all the strengths of Suspended’s early work, while also making great strides in areas that were formerly shady. Prelude To Indignance, debuted in 2008, did not do justice to the band’s prowess on stage. Since then, the band has matured both musically and lyrically. Amanda Castillo’s vocals have improved drastically. Her voice has a newfound depth and fury, and her guitar leads have more virtuosity than ever before. Meanwhile, Jessica Armstrong often steals the spotlight with her fingerstyle bass grooves, and Channing Choncho rocks the drums in a classic thrash style.

Although they play fast, it’s not overwhelming. As musicians, they have mastered the art of savoring certain melodies, riffs, and notes. The result is a mid-paced, militant sound that is largely driven by rhythm rather than melody. The rhythmic progressions are unpredictable, with syncopated beats and abrupt changes in tempo. The groove of the bass lines connects the shredding guitar leads to the gravity of the percussion. This intense instrumentation, all overlapped by Castillo’s and Armstrong’s gutteral vocals, makes Hollowed Minds an excellent album. This is undoubtedly Suspended at their best.

There’s not a single bad song on this EP, but some tracks stand out as being especially furious. When The Smoke Clears hits the ground running with a fussilade of percussion,  heavy riffs, and shredding leads.  Beast Within and Embrace The End both have some killer solos, not to mention acoustic openings which invoke Suspended’s previous material. The tracks transition into each other almost seamlessly, and as a whole, Hollowed Minds is very well-grounded and solid.

Hollowed Minds is available on Cdbaby, and you can also find Suspended on Reverbnation.  My sole complaint about an otherwise superb album is that the sound quality was a little bit too compressed. Even so, this is good stuff. As long as Suspended is around, thrash metal will be alive and kicking. Four stars out of five!