Titles like "Eat And Hate", "Rent To Kill", "Rotten Fruit", "Watch Your Back", "A Girl That Hurts" and "Schizophrenia" don’t exactly make you smile. "I Love You" however makes me smile in a way, but it sounds very depressing, which suits the music very well. The spoken word part is erotic and sensual and gives me the shivers all over. In a positive way, that is. When you take a look at the lyrics though, you know that the message isn’t positive at all and it was almost too good to be true. The full title of this song is "I Love You Coz You’re Dead", by the way.

The black soul of this band never rests and hides, as you can see. Kristell’s voice sounds quite similar to Anneke van Giersbergen’s, although she has a very different musical background. The band knows to create a clinical sound, which screams to be played ultraloud. It’s dancable and despite the fact I can’t dance, it makes sense that some people might dance to the beats of Skeptical Minds. "Rotten Fruit" has got some distorted vocals, but we hear Kristell’s normal singing voice again in "Madness".

Besides Kristell, the band consists of Michel on guitar, Vincent on keyboards, Pascal on bass and Gab on drums and acoustic guitar. The opening riffs of "Kissing The White Goddess" sound like they were made to be played real loud! In my thoughts, I can picture this bad B-movie about drug addicts, who don’t see no future anymore. And guess what? I was right. The white goddess refers to heroin in the lyrics. While "Watch Your Back" could be another soundtrack to a movie of innocent people walking through the dark, deserted streets of the big cities. Don’t go there, because you’ll always have to "Watch Your Back".

In songs like "Treasured Felony" and "Black Porcelain", Kristell’s voice stands out really well. Sober, yet very convincing. Sometimes distorted, but always crystal clear. Highlight however is "Kissing War", in which the music is pushed to the background and you can only hear some keyboards. The fragile sound of Kristell’s voice sounds quite beautiful here. And after that, you’re longing to hear more industrial beats…

Therefore, we have three bonus tracks for you (only to be found on this special ’07 North American edition): "Schizophrenia" (with distorted vocals), "A Girl That Hurts" and "Relocated Soul". Industrial strength with great female vocals is the description for Skeptical Minds in a nutshell. There is still a lot of talent coming from Belgium and prove is given on this cd.

Website: http://www.skepticalminds.com.

8/10