Skeptical Minds – CD Review
Run For Your Live

CD Info
2014
FYB Records Belgium
10 Tracks 39:08 minutes
English Lyrics

It’s hard to write a review of a live album when you’ve seen a Skeptical Minds gig at FemME – Female Metal Event) a couple of days before I started writing. The album Run For Your Live is the band’s second live release. The first one is the DVD / Blu-Ray Watch Your Live, a recording of their performance on Metal Female Voices Fest (MFVF) VIII in 2010. The album Run For Your Live is a re-mix of the recording at MFVF X in 2012. The cover “Born to Be Wild” with guest vocals of Iliana Tsakiraki (Enemy Of Reality, ex-Meden Agan), Angel Wolf-Black (Seduce The Heaven, ex-Bare Infinity) and Elina Laivera (ex-Seduce The Heaven) is missing.

Being present at MFVF X, the album brings back good memories. To make the link with MFVF complete, the album will be released October 18 at MFVF XII.

The current line-up of the quartet hailing from Belgium is Karolina Pacan (vocals), Michel Stiakakis (guitars), Patrice Brugneaux (bass) and Benjamin Lazzano (drums). At the time of the recorded gig at MFVF X, Thomas Dewandre (cello) was the fifth member of Skeptical Minds.

At that event Skeptical Minds also celebrated their 10th anniversary. They have quite a good reputation in the scene and play quite a lot, but mostly as support or otherwise in small clubs. This results also at MFVF that they are programmed in the mid-section of the festival. That explains why the album only has 10 tracks, limited by the given timeslot.

Skeptical Minds is currently working on a new album. The last (2nd) full album Skepticalized [3] was released in 2010. The album Run For Your Live contains songs from that album and new(er) songs, of which some are released later in 2013 on the EP Living In A Movie [4].

The album opens with the quieter “Inertia” from Skepticalized [3] where you immediately are in the Skeptical Minds mood. Their typical sound is one you like or do not. The mix is a little cleared but the live atmosphere is there. Before the next song Karolina invites the audience to participate. Although she’s quite small, she has immense energy. “Skeleton Key” is only released on the EP The Beauty Must Die [2]. After “Rotten Fruit” from the first album Rent to Kill [1], the oldest song in the set, it’s time for a new song “Dictator” that is not (yet) released.

The set continues with “Alcohol’ [4} which according to Karolina is well known by the audience. You can question the song or the reference to the title. After that “Madness” another not yet released song, is played. The next part is for Skepticalized. The slow pace song “No Way Out”, the varied “Broken Dolls” and “Someone New”. In “Broken Dolls” Iliana Tsakiraki joins the band on stage. Her operatic vocals add an extra touch to that song. The voices complement each other very well. Just like in the gig the show closed with “Living in the Movie”. With Karolina saying “We will make a picture with you all” the show ends.

Usually a live show reflects mostly released songs. With that you don’t need to go in a lot of detail on the songs. In this case two not yet published songs are revealed in the show. It gives enough to look forward to the new album. And at that time we can do a more extensive review of the songs.

The sound quality (digital promo copy) is well balanced. The album mix keeps the atmosphere of a live show. However Skeptical Minds is a band that gets the most appreciation by their live performance. Karolina is great on stage but on the CD the visuals (funny faces) are lost. Nevertheless this is a good album especially when you play it loud, very LOUD. Then you might get the gig experience, at least I do.

Score: 8.5 / 10

• Prev
• Next