Aggressively clamorous yet intriguingly melodic
Following on from the release of their highly praised offerings ‘Fight One’ and ‘Payday’ throughout last year, fast-rising outfit Minas are back to deliver their unapologetic and unreserved new album ‘All My Love Has Failed Me’, out now. The 12-strong track album features previously released singles ‘Payday’, ‘Foreign’ and ‘Fight One’.
The upcoming LP draws heavily from the 1980s punk scene and refines its aggressively clamorous yet intriguingly melodic trademark sound to accompany tales from a colourful past, largely touching on themes of mental health and disillusionment stemming from societal injustice. The band has described their forthcoming LP as a “diary” of sorts, chronicling a multitude of personal and external hardships with which the project has a bone to pick.
Speaking about the new offering, band leader James Minas said this: “This album, to me, is a summary of some of the hardest years of my life. At times the one thing that kept me going, at others, the one thing that tore me apart. I feel almost in shock that it’s going to be out there, I hope it connects with people in the way our live shows have over the last year or so. I started this to show people they aren’t alone in the struggle and to remind myself too.”
The album opens with the raw and pulsing ‘B&R’, a triumphantly distorted and catchy rant-driven track that Minas jokingly refers to as ‘ramblepunk’, summing up how he rants about various things he’s confused or annoyed about. This follows into the ceaselessly crescendoing and bass-driven title track, where Minas gradually explodes at the realization that systematic oppression has driven the morphing of his vices and character for so long. Sonic screeches and gorgeously dissonant piano layers work together to signify a mental break on ‘Foreign’ where Minas languishes at the media-driven manipulation of his generation, a pain and confusion that is only exacerbated by a dive into substance abuse on rap-rock cut ‘Payday’.
‘Shush’ finds the drowned-out singer in the vicious high itself only to be snapped awake on ‘Protests’, channelling a surplus of rampant energy and furiously tying together first-hand perspectives of a protest against South Wales Police following an assault that led to the death of Mohammed Hassan. Minas relapses on synth-metal eruption ‘Fight One’, beginning to fear the path before him and desperately trying to lay his old self to rest on ‘Stress’. Partying his way toward rock bottom on the electronic cut ‘Needs, Wants’, he recognizes that he can grow from his overwhelming familiarity with depression on the grating yet atmospheric ‘I’ve Covered My Hands In This’, with its synth progressions and lonesome keys opening the gates for Minas to take a steady step toward reconciliation and recovery on ‘Belly Down’, as fearsome as it may be. ‘Drinker (Reprise) ties the album off on a high note, with an older song that was written in a dark time being reworked to signify a present state of sobriety and security.
Minas is the project from Greek/Welsh producer & musician James Minas, alongside the rhythm section of the Davies Brothers.
Minas grew up in the circus with parents who were heavily involved in the 1980s punk scene and then moved to secondary school in the Welsh Valleys. His music draws from the boredom and shenanigans that took place. The songs reveal stories of a checkered past over a mix of deep melodic soundscapes and loud, aggressive impacts. Covering subjects from his personal struggles with mental health (“My heart was giving my ribs a kicking”) to disillusionment (“Three-pound meal deals feeding my mates”). Minas holds a mirror up to society, trying to understand it. As a respected producer, James is working to build a new sound for the South Wales scene with a number of artists and genres. However, as an artist, Minas presents his own brutal honesty and lays open a vulnerability for all to hear.
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