Leo Skull [Release date 23.03.13]

Mind The Gaep is a powerful hard rock band with metal pretension, but it’s their softer underbelly that more accurately reflects their true calling. Scratch below the stunt guitar parts and brusque vocals and you’ll find a band that is a progress in work.

Mind The Gaep wear their hearts on their sleeves, from their uncompromising mission statement; ‘Beers up, Balls Out, Rock ‘n’ Roll – Motherfucker!’ to vocalist Matt Diener’s Axl rose machinations, Stephan Ebert’s moments of intense shredding and Vjeran Wertag’s unremitting rumbling bass.

This is a band with a strong musical foundation whose front line players and vocalist have all been nominated for their respective categories at the German Rock & Pop Awards 2012

But while they do enjoy a few intense frenzied moments, too much of the material flatters to deceive. The opening title track is topped and tailed by an impressive scream from Matt Diener, either side of some impressive shredding by guitarist Ebert.

The band also rock with venom on ‘Reckless Driver’ before a clumsy tempo change that is never fully resolved. ‘Sister Sister’ mines a few AC/DC riffs , but the band don’t seem to know whether to stick or twist – to rock or to rumble – as the vocals struggle to rise above a very busy backing track.

The problem isn’t so much a bad mix as a loose arrangement. The band’s own PR mentions the old school, live in the studio approach, but this track leaves the listener uncertain of what producer Marc Bugnard and the band actually had in mind.

The following ‘Out of Reach’ is much better, and features some well crafted harmonies and a stronger melody. Backing vocalist Florencia Giorgi’s duet with Matt adds an extra dimension on the electric ‘Miss J’, though it’s still a song in search of meaningful lyrics. The band further obscures it’s musical direction by heading for the bluesy boogie of ‘Bourbon Blues’, before a return to their heavier roots on the metal drone of ‘Cum On Babe’.

Ironically, it’s Mind The Gaep’s own sense of adventure and stylistic variety that highlights their shortcomings. The unexpected ballad ‘What Does Love Mean’ cruelly exposes Matt’s phrasing, as he over sings in an attempt to bring emotion to the song.

Just when you think they have given it their best shot and failed, they finish with an unexpected sax break from Alexander Hanke on ‘Midnight Dance’. The resulting groove might have better suited the album earlier on, though there is also a pregnant pause leading to an acoustic coda, that finds vocalist Diener and the band exploring an acoustic, Axl Rose /Guns N’ Roses type ballad.

The end-piece nearly works and suggests that with a bit more attention to their song writing and with better lyrics, Mind The Gaep might eventually find enough substance to fill their enthusiastic bluster. ***(3/5)

Review by Pete Feenstra

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