This album needed more than a few spins to sit right with me, and vocalist H.B. Anderson still hasn't won me over completely; he sounds like a strange mix between Jon Oliva and Tom S. Englund (Evergrey) and his coarse voice really rubs me the wrong way on a few occasions, but fits the music very well for most parts.

"Charmed Human Art of Significance (C.h.a.o.s)" is their debut album and it is clear that we are not dealing with a bunch of untrained upcoming musicians. Vocalist H.B. Anderson and guitarist Matthias Holm goes back to the late 80s where they worked together in The 'N' Sin, but this collaboration didn't begin to take form until 1993 where they began to work together on this album. Joining them is bassist Conny Payne (Madison) and the two highly respected studio musicians drummer Jon Skäre and keyboardist Jonas Lidström.

The inspiration for the lyrical universe came from H.B. Anderson's great old, old grandfather Xerxes Anderson’s Artificial Universe (a.k.a. Prof. Xandau 1807 - 1851) notes from his therapy sessions. Prof. Xandau was a much respected therapist during the first half of 19th century and had his sessions all over the world based in both Europe and the U.S. These notes are the solid ground to this project and are used to tell a true story about psychological thoughts and human behaviours (from the Info sheet).

The musical inspiration to go with the complex lyrics come from bands like Dream Theater and Evergrey peppered with small pinches of Metallica and Seventh Wonder, and there are epic moments of brilliance ("Silhouettes", "Inside the Heart of Silence", "Visual Minds - The Eternal Flame", "Through the Eyes of a Child", "A Room of a Thousand Doors" and "A Purpose of Circumstance") on this album paired with some songs that don't quite reach the same high level, making this a great debut album.

MindSplit has created a very impressive debut album; one that needs time to blossom, but give it time and it will open up and show its true colours.