Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void

AMG Review of Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void

Jason Ankeny
All Music Guide

Comprised of a single 42-minute live performance piece, the brain-searing Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void is a trip into the furthest reaches of sound, a complete immersion into space noise and melodic chaos. The Harmony Rockets guise allows Mercury Rev the opportunity to push their music to its breaking point; instead of the ear-splitting avant freakout one might have expected, however, the disc seems to exist in slow motion, characterized by ominous waves of sound. Guitars drone, trumpets throb, and Jonathan Donahue's vocals float in and out of the mix like random messages intercepted from another galaxy; the cumulative effect is an amazing distortion of the time-space continuum, a shape-shifting aural world almost alien in its dementia.