I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: February 25, 2026] Mindrazer

I saw Arkona open for Korpiklanni back in 2018.  When they announced a show in Clifton,I just had to go. It was my first time going to Dingbatz, a (mostly) heavy metal club. The place is really small (200 people) and the show was not sold out (yikes).

I was wondering how come I never went to Dingbatz if it was 20 minutes from where I grew up.  I found out it opened in 2004, the year I moved away from the area.  How about that.

So the secondband up was from Hackettstown (which the singer pointed out was only known for making M&Ms (it’s the headquarters of Mars candy).

Unlike the rest of the lineup, Mindrazer plays mostly thrash metal–clean vocals (soaring vocals like the guy from Helloween).  Both guitarists played excellent solos–some serious skills on stage there.

But as with the first band, I felt like they were demanding a lot from the audience since no one knew them. The singer insisted that everyone there get on the floor and row.  I’m not exactly sure when or where this trend started–I assume with Amon Amarth, bit I could be wrong.  I’m all for it because I think it’s hilarious and is probably a lot of fun.

A song or two later, the singer jumped onto the floor and tried to get a circle pit started while he played and soloed.  No one was really into it, I think everyone was more intrigued that he was on the floor.  I know someone took a really close up video of him shredding which was pretty cool.

Again, demanding a lot for a band no one’s heard of.  I found them a little hard to take seriously because they looked really young and earnest.  There was a part where he told us they were taking us on a journey through the history of horror and the horror of history.  But they were a lot of fun and captured the sound of 80s/90s thrash really well.

After a couple of songs he asked if the crowd thought they were a thrash band.  Weird, but yes.  Did we think they could do death metal too?  Who knows, we’ve only hard three songs by you.  Anyhow, the bassist then stepped up and did growling vocals as they did a cover of the Mayhem song Freezing Moon.

The best part was when they played Crusader.  They had someone dressed like a crusader, complete with sword and skull mask (with snakes dangling from its mouth).  He wandered the stage threatening the band and then he jumped down onto the floor and started a circle pit.  This was easily my favorite circle pit ever–a guy with a sword as the central focus of the pit.

It was nice to have a different style of music since the other three were pretty much all death metal.

SETLIST
1453 (Doom of the Eastern Crown)
Seeker
Unnatural Rebirth
Freezing Moon (Mayhem cover)
Crusader ♠

♠ A Thing of Nightmares (2023)