I’m revisiting the mind.in.a.box catalog prior to the release of their eighth studio album, Black and White, which is due out August 30, 2023. mind.in.a.box is unique in that their albums form part of a cohesive storyline. Let’s get caught up.
Background behind Broken Legacies
In 2017, mind.in.a.box released their seventh studio album and the sixth chapter in the Dreamweb storyline, Broken Legacies. A monumental change occurred behind the scenes that most fans probably didn’t realize unless they took a close look at the Discogs credits. Longtime lyricist Markus Hadwiger departed the project and was replaced by Josh Kreger. As far as I know, Stefan Poiss never publicly explained the change, so it remains unclear why Markus left the project.
So who is Josh Kreger? He’s an American writer and college professor who once contributed to the long-running dark-scene publication ReGen Magazine. He even interviewed Stefan and Markus for ReGen back in 2009, shortly after the original Dreamweb trilogy concluded. Broken Legacies wasn’t his first time working with Stefan. Josh previously penned lyrics for “Roses” and “The Endless Journey” by THYX, Stefan’s other project.
The change in writers is noticeable to astute listeners. Markus tended to leave gaps in the story and let the songs work on their own terms. Josh is much more direct. Broken Legacies often feels like story first, song second, with more exposition and fewer memorable hooks or lyrical turns that give the songs life beyond the plot. That makes the album an important bridge in the larger saga, but also one of the less memorable mind.in.a.box records for me.
The album itself is a prequel that jumps twenty years into the past. Prior to its release, miab produced a teaser track for YouTube that wasn’t included on the album and offered a straightforward account of the story.
How the mind.in.a.box storyline progresses
Broken Legacies takes us twenty years into the past, long before Black discovered the Sleepwalkers and the Dreamweb. This time, the story unfolds from the perspective of The Friend, who is being hunted by a man dressed in black. Yes, Black himself. Our protagonist was one of the bad guys before he turns against the Agency in the Dreamweb trilogy.
The album opens with noir imagery: a city shrouded in fog, flickering neon signs. The Friend is on the run. He describes creating a massive computer system capable of conducting experiments across the planet, but something has gone wrong. Now he wants to destroy his creation before Black can stop him.
We hear references to familiar mind.in.a.box motifs like programming, memory, and control. The album is also filled with imagery of experimentation: wires, circuits, chemicals, frequencies, even dreams.
The Friend eventually refers to his creation as The System, which the Agency uses to exert control over the world. The album traces his regret over building it and his decision to turn against it. Meanwhile, rebels begin organizing against the Agency, setting the stage for the resistance movement that is central to the larger storyline.
By the end of Broken Legacies, the resistance has grown into an army with The Friend as one of its leaders. The rebels march on the Agency, armed with intelligence from an informant inside its walls. Their mission is to attack the Agency and eliminate Black.
Exactly how The System and the Dreamweb relate to one another isn’t explained particularly well on Broken Legacies, but the album fills in an important piece of the mythology: The Friend created The System, Black once hunted him on behalf of the Agency, and the rebels were already fighting back long before the events of the original trilogy.
What the critics said about Broken Legacies
IDie:YouDie: “Broken Legacies is generally a softer if not specifically quieter record than the past couple of m.i.a.b releases – a straight-up four-four number like “Attack” (presumably delivered from a voice within the Agency itself) is the exception – but Poiss and company find ways of conjuring new moods from partway familiar elements. None of the sounds on “Glory Days” are all that far off from those one might have found in earlier work, but the shuffling beat and bittersweet tone feel quite new. The same could be said for the oddly gothic and melancholy tone of “Arcade”, where Poiss’ vocals have a weathered vulnerability we’ve not heard before.” (Full review)
Broken Legacies’ standout track
“World of Promises” is by far the best song on Broken Legacies and one of mind.in.a.box’s definitive tracks. It opens in a somber haze of shimmering pads and the mesmerizing mutant voices that define much of miab’s best work. Around the 90-second mark, a beat drops and the song practically explodes with intricate synth layers and uplifting melodies. Its lyrics are bleak, filled with images of loss, death, and isolation, but the music gives the song a sense of beauty and release. That tension between melancholy and euphoria makes “World of Promises” gorgeous and gives Broken Legacies its most unforgettable moment.
