Mindsphere - The Path

[astralprojection]

OCTOBER 17 - 2025 - RELEASED - SUNTRIP RECORDS

track list: 

1-1 Take My Hand 9:11

1-2 Children Of The Sun 8:09

1-3 The Path Of The Ascetic 10:11

1-4 Sacred Phase 10:50

1-5 Endless Ritua 10:43

1-6 This World Is Not For Us 7:40

1-7 Gone Like The Wind 8:03

1-8 We Can Never Go Back 8:54

2-1 Emptiness 10:09

2-2 For A Memory 21:05

2-3 Supplication 6:35

2-4 Everything Will Be Solved Today 7:15

2-5 Source Of Emotions 17:09

2-7 Heartfelt 4:52

2-8 Blurred Memories 7:55

3-1 Drifting Into Myself 8:13

3-2 Moment Of Decision 15:05

3-3 Longing For Something 11:18

3-4 Bottomless Pit 9:23

3-5 What Was Left Behind 5:30

3-6 Nowhere I Meant To Be 5:26

3-7 Impasse 4:16

3-8 Lasting Memories 9:36

3-9 Regeneration 6:05

 

Im not going to go thru each track. Ill just give an overall impression.

There are very interesting pieces of music here, on all tracks. So i recommend if you like Mindsphere and New School goa, you will like alot of this one. But, something is wrong with the sound. I cant pinpoint it, but its very sharp, annoying and doesnt feel good. I think the wrong files was sent for mastering. Or rather, the wrong files was sent FROM mastering.

Thats just my honest thoughts.
Because it sounds harsh, digital, annoying, and the bass+kick doesnt feel well defined or pleasant.

So while I might hear it in a technical problem area, you might not. But for me this reduces the grade ALOT. 
Cause, theres really no excuse for sounding bad anymore. Musically sure, but soundwise? no. 
Again theres tons of really cool tracks here, that I invite you all to check out. Maybe you dont hear the issues I hear. 

Afterall, Mindsphere is a great talent, so it saddens me that for me personally, this album goes into the trash just because of its sound. To me this music is WAY better than Astral Projection - For all Mankind. But the sound is even worse than it. Sadly. 

I cant understand what happened because his older albums did NOT sound like this. Again, sound only....

I hope I can come back to this later on , because i have lots to say about the music. But for now, unfortunately, the music will suffer due to unpleasant sound. And it is really sad, because the music deserves SO much better. 

2.5/5

The best thing about this massive album is that he reprises or remixes alot of famous melodies. Thats worth the listen alone.

[acid being]

OK firstly, the music is pretty lovely. About harshness though, when I heard the first track I was going to say any harshness was a marginal thing, maybe hidden by my tinnitus. But I heard the second track and I started to notice it more. It is not the worst ever, but it is enough to notice, and enough that if I crank the volume my ears will start to get tired after a couple tracks or so. Across the whole album though, some tracks are more tolerable in that regard than others because they don't all flood the upper mids all the time.

I wonder if it is just due to the fashion of cranking up the upper mids to increase perceived loudness, which isn't such a great idea for Goa because most Goa fans won't want to feel like someone is hammering metallic objects right into their ear drums, well IMHO anyway.

Maybe we just need a cassette version AP!

Good album.