Bengaluru Metallers MyndSnare’s Cerebral 2008 Debut ‘Conditioned : Human’ Gets Reissue

It’s not often that a band says they were glad they went “overboard in a few areas” while recording their album, but it’s something Bengaluru metal trio MyndSnare are glad about in retrospect. About 13 years after the release of their imposing album Conditioned : Human, MyndSnare are reissuing the record with a new mix and master (helmed by seasoned sound engineer Anupam Roy) via Subcontinental Records on October 10th.

Guitarist and vocalist K.P. Krishnamoorthy says the decision to keep the dry tracks and stems for all instruments recorded have enabled Roy “to work his magic on them” for the reissue. He adds about revisiting the album, “Initially, more than thinking about the way it was made, it brought back tons of memories about who we were, and salient experiences and events during the time we wrote and recorded these songs.”

Completed by drummer Yasmin Claire Kazi and bassist Sandesh Nagaraj – and featuring original inputs from Narayan Shrouthy (currently part of metallers Inner Sanctum) – Conditioned : Human became a rattling, unfaltering offering which leaned into tech-death, prog and death metal, while also nodding to visceral old-school thrash influences as well. The two “renovated” tracks released from the album so far – “Conditioned : Human” and “Temporal Movements” – signal just how forward thinking MyndSnare were at the time, informed by bands such as Cynic, Death and more.

Ask Krishnamoorthy if they would have done anything differently during the making of the record and he points to the “mild disagreements” the band continue to have over not using a click-track. He adds, “We think the lack of a click-track led to a much more natural-sounding end result that we would’ve otherwise achieved.”

Roy, for his part, says this opportunity to work on the album again as mixing and mastering engineer was a crack at redemption. Conditioned : Human was one of the first records that tasked Roy with mixing and mastering live drums. He adds, “Most importantly, nobody in their right mind says no to mixing Yasmin’s explosive playing with the kind of tools available today and with the benefit of more than a decade of mixing a lot of drums. I was overjoyed!”

The timelessness of the nine-track record leaps forward in this reissue, something that Krishnamoorthy says was “never a goal” with the album. “Lyrically, a lot of the topics we deal with in this album have to do with authoritarian politics, religious dogma and introspection about the human condition. None of this will change very quickly in the real world, for better or for worse,” he adds. Although more jaded with the state of the world at the moment, Krishnamoorthy says it was refreshing to look back at the strong feelings that fueled the angst on Conditioned : Human.

Originally released via Demonstealer Records in 2008, the album and MyndSnare have seen plenty of change since then. Kazi moved to England, while Krishnamoorthy and Nagaraj are in different parts of the U.S., but they still remain friends and occasional collaborators. “Sandy and I were part of [metal band] Fractalline, Yas and Sandy were in [experimental rock band] Serotura, and Sandy’s got his own projects going on all the time, as well,” Krishnamoorthy says, referring to The Sonic Chameleon, Syreim, The Replicate and more.

It’s also fair to say that the release of a new version of Conditioned : Human doesn’t mean they’d get back together. Krishnamoorthy says, “I don’t think there’ll ever be a reunion — I think it is best to let the music we recorded speak for itself. The band came to a natural stopping point after over a decade of existence, and it would be unnatural for us to try and revive it.” He points out that with members in different countries, a virtual, long-distance reunion wouldn’t feel right. “Collaborating over these distances will not give us the feeling of being in a band, that being in MyndSnare did — which is one of the most important things about what we were about,” he adds.

Listen to “Temporal Movements” below. Pre-order ‘Conditioned : Human’ via Bandcamp and Instamojo.