JoeyNiles – “Masters Of Minds”

JoeyNiles – “Masters Of Minds” – Single Review

Metal music designed to make you think?  Who would’ve thought!?!

Ahhh…it’s such a misunderstood style of music, ain’t it?  From the moment it first started, all the way through to where it is now, you’ll still find tons of people that think Metal is really all about turning up the guitars, makin’ some noise, and not a whole lot else.  Of course, dedicated fans of the genre and those out there paying actual attention know different, but it’s always been interesting to me how little credit Metal seems to get in comparison to so many other kinds of music out there when it comes to furthering the conversation on important issues.  JoeyNiles is no stranger when it comes to the concept of dealing with serious subjects, which we learned way back in 2018 when we had our first experience with his music and a song called “Death Has No Friends.”  A lot of that particular track offered thought-provoking takes on religion, but went into even heavier topics like suicide and murder…I mean, you could tell from the title that he was going into some grim terrain, but he pulled it off in a sincere way that was meant to get people thinking about the finality of death, and encouraged folks to choose life.

Three years ago, we reviewed a song called “Who Are You” by JoeyNiles, and I suppose you could now look at that track and consider it to be the precursor to his new single “Masters Of Minds,” or even a companion piece of sorts…almost like a part one and part two type of thing.  You certainly get the sense that protecting his mind has become a massive priority for the man over the years, and rightly so – we should all be concerned with our mental health in a variety of ways in this day & age that we’re livin’ in.  We get continually bombarded with information and misinformation in equal doses, and if you’re not vigilant enough, eventually you’ll have no clue as to which is which.  Believe me, I’ve seen it firsthand, and I highly suspect I’m not alone in that regard.  From family to friends, to minds we’ve grown up with great respect for – we’ve probably all lost at least a few people we love into the void.  Whether they’ve been consumed by conspiracy theories, or they’ve lost the ability to separate fact from fiction…the mind itself is being threatened daily at a rate that it’s never been before, and I’d be the first to tell ya that it’d be hard to claim we’re winning the war.  I grew up with a heavy level of distrust for the world around me – so for myself personally, I’ve taken just about everything I can think of with the ol’ proverbial grain of salt.  I’ve never considered it to be the media’s job to tell me the truth, however ideal that might be – instead, I’ve always viewed it as my job to figure out what was really real, versus the reality they were trying to sell us – make sense?  And to be truthful with ya, I actually assumed this was something we were all capable of doing throughout the majority of my life to an extent, albeit some more efficiently than others…it’s only been within this last decade that I’ve come to realize some folks have never been doing this at all.  Like the “I’m just asking questions” crowd…those people shock me, daily.  I definitely support the idea of asking questions in just about everything…but it makes me shake my head when it comes to how basic some of those questions can be in comparison to those of us that have been doing that throughout our entire lives.  I’m not here to hand out medals for mental acuity, nor would I even claim to be the most qualified to do so…but c’mon y’all…we’re living in a world where people are really starting to believe that a fifteen minute Google search equates to a lifetime of dedicated studies, and that’s a joke.  Even now, as I’m writing this, I know I’ve been generous with the amount of time people spend on researching things as they’re ‘just asking questions’ – let’s be real, most of the time they’re just clicking some meme, or re-posting the inaccurate information of others.  That ain’t research, that ain’t learning, that’s just bullshit, and about half the people we all know are now part of the problem.

“Your mind is your greatest asset.  Once you give it, it is hard to get it back.” – JoeyNiles

He ain’t wrong.  So protect that shit!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vYQLlDrQ0

Many of the greatest tunes out there are thought-provoking ones, and I’ve always appreciated the way this dude gets our wheels turning in that regard.  “Masters Of Minds” is definitely as JoeyNiles of a tune as I’ve heard from JoeyNiles when it comes to the overall theme.  Sound-wise, he’s got an old Ozzy-esque type of vibe fueling the fire in this particular cut.  It’s gnarly, it’s Metal, and there are a series of great ideas at the core of this tune, in addition to the ones shown throughout the video supporting it.  “Masters Of Minds” has the right ingredients from the wild guitar you’d expect to find at the heart of a JoeyNiles tune, to insightful lyricism, to hooks that you can hear in the vocals as well.  Lots of positives for sure…but we somewhat expect that from him, because we know this ain’t his first rodeo.

In fact, that might be the more perplexing aspect of this particular single this time around.  With the extensive amount of experience/time he takes with his material, I gotta say, I was a bit confounded by the production on this particular track in comparison to the rest – to the point where I was wondering if something might have been lost in translation or the compression algorithms in a YouTube upload.  It’s also what got me going back through those past tunes of JoeyNiles as well…because…like…they didn’t sound like this, did they?  The answer is no – they didn’t.  When it comes to “Death Has No Friends” and “Who Are You” they each had a much more defined, robust, and full sound to them…”Masters Of Minds” is working with a scratchier, threadbare type of sound that nearly makes it seem like you’re hearing it on an old transistor radio.  Obviously, if that’s what JoeyNiles was going for, then right on – but if it’s not, then there’s still much work to be done here.  Even if the thinner and tinnier sound of “Masters Of Mind” was what he was going for, I can tell ya right now that 9.9/10 sets of ears out there are going to hear this song and feel like it’s got multiple obstacles in the way of coming back for a repeat spin.  None of which, mind you, come from the ideas or the musicianship – all that stuff is good, but there’s a distinctly overblown sound to “Masters Of Minds” that can pretty much only ever be caused by those lights on the studio boards trippin’ way over the red-line.  I try to never be too harsh when I have to comment on production & the technical stuff, because everyone’s got different levels of access to equipment, studio time & whatnot…but at the same time, we have to keep it real with the artists/bands we listen to, and also hold them to the standards that they’ve previously set.  What’s confusing to me is that there would be no way that JoeyNiles would be able to listen to the same three songs I’ve heard from him so far and not come to the same conclusions I have – “Masters Of Minds” is really missing the clarity and depth he’s put out in his previous material, and I’m personally not convinced that this isn’t a bit of a step backwards when it comes to the sound his music, ideas, efforts, and skill level deserves.  I’ll readily concede that it goes really well with the distorted visual effects in the video…but it’s hard to argue that the production on “Masters Of Minds” wouldn’t be off-putting for the average everyday listener when it comes to the song itself.  So if he was attempting to match things visually/audibly together, I respect the attempt, but I also know the reality on how the majority of people tend to listen to their tunes…and any obstacles that are in the way of a repeat spin can be a death sentence for a song.

At three years between singles…at least the ones that have appeared on these pages of ours…there’s definitely no need to rush the process, and that’s what it sounds like is happening here somewhere…something in the process is being rushed.  I don’t know if this is an issue in the fundamentals of the actual recording, or some version of the song that got distorted and over-compressed when it got uploaded – but JoeyNiles has gotta get back under the hood & tinker with this one some more as it currently stands.  He already had the right sound/production before in his previous tunes, so the blueprint for success is right there…and the ideas found in “Masters Of Minds” would certainly be worth the effort it takes to save this track.  I love the parts he’s written, I love what he’s playing, and the solos are off the charts cool too…like I said, lots of positives to work with about “Masters Of Minds,” but it needs the same level of care and attention to detail when it comes to the sound coming through the speakers that we know he’s capable of.  Y’all know me…I just call things like I hear’em, and I’m as honest as possible because that’s what benefits the creative community the most for their own evolution.  ”Masters Of Minds” is a good song worth saving…whether that’s polishing it up, re-recording it, whatever it takes…it definitely has more potential in it than we hear right now, but it’s up to JoeyNiles to get it to where it needs to be.

Find more music from JoeyNiles at his page at ReverbNation:  https://www.reverbnation.com/joeyniles

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