Mental Exile – Inferno Hotline (EP – Alfa Matrix)
Genre/Influences: Electro-Pop.
Format: Digital.
Background/Info: After the successful debut album “Ride The Madness” (2019) Mondträume singer Damasius Venys got back to his solo-project Mental exile to unleash new songs. “Inferno Hotline” reveals three new songs plus three remixes.
Content: Mental Exile’s main source of inspiration can be found in the 80s Electro-Wave and related music genres. It’s still rapidly recognizable on the new songs and especially some good-old effects bring us back in time. The title song is a pretty danceable piece of old-school inspired Electro-Pop with some extra, personal elements on top. We next get a more dreamy cut and an instrumental piece. Remixes have been accomplished by N-Frequency, Vanguard and Beyond Border.
+ + + : Mental Exile strikes back with a solid title track, which reveals the artist’s sources of inspiration and the charismatic voice of Damasius Venys. I like the way the song evolves; taking off with cool samplings and resulting in a danceable retro-driven song. There’s also something to say about “Run Away”, which is more dreamy-like. Among the remixes I especially recommend the remix of “Renegades” (originally edited at the EP “Exile Nights”) by N-Frequency.
– – – : I was personally more convinced by previous album and EP, which were more into the 80s sound.
Conclusion: An intriguing title song, which could be a perfect teaser for a next album by the Spanish solo-project.
Best songs: “Inferno Hotline”, “Renegades – N-Frequency Remix”.
Rate: 7½.
Artist: www.facebook.com/mentalexileproject
Label: www.alfa-matrix.com / www.facebook.com/Alfa.Matrix Read the news on ‘Inferno Hotline’.
About Mental Exile
Mental Exile is the solo project of the Spanish singer Damasius Venys, who joined the synthpop project Mondträume in late 2011 and fronted it until 2022. The project launched in November 2018 with the six-track download EP “Exile Nights” on Alfa Matrix. Venys explained the project in a Side-Line interview in January 2019.
The debut album Ride The Madness was released on 4 October 2019 as a twelve-track digital album, preceded by the video for “Renegades” in September. A second ‘Click Interview’ with Mental Exile followed in December 2019, and the EP Exile Nights II came out in June 2020. Venys also remixed Helalyn Flowers, Aiboforcen and Acylum for the label.
“Inferno Hotline” was released on 4 June 2021 as a digital EP with three new songs and remixes by Vanguard, N-Frequency and Beyond Border. It is the project’s most recent release listed on Discogs.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
