Blindside
"A Thought Crushed my Mind" (reissue)
DRT Entertainment

I'll be totally honest here, Reissues should only be done if a band has an album that is long out of print, but I've seen the original of "A Thought Crushed my Mind" in stores since it came out in 2000. But that's really my only complaint with the album.

Blindside, believe it or not, were a hardcore band before they made it big over here in the states with their breakthrough album "Believe." On This record you've got the feel that this band was heavily, and I can't stress that enough, heavily influenced by the now classic Swedish hardcore band Refused. You hear it in the guitars, that heavy sound coming from them right to the singers screaming and then without warning switches into a singing voice.

Going back to the original, and then listening to the remastered version, "King of the Closet" is my favorite track. I think it gives everyone a feel for what Blindside used to be and how they kicked ass doing it. It had hardcore elements, the fast paced guitars of a punk song, and the lyrics of an emo band. All wrapped into one.

The cool thing about the reissue is the fact they included some bonus tracks that were normally vinyl only releases, so fans might for the first time get to hear these songs all cleaned up. They tried to make it worth it for longtime fans to want to buy it again, and maybe include the songs for newer fans that had no clue they were once a hardcore band.

I think being one of the more popular Christian hard rock bands around has helped Blindside to come to new markets and leave a mark on the hard rock community here in the US.

This was a good album when it came out 5 years ago, so I'm not really sure if new fans will like the hardcore feel to most songs on this album, but it's always good to let fans know that you haven't forgotten your past and it helped shape them to be the band they are today.


Reviewed by: Chris Buehler
Reviewed on: June 20, 2005