Released By : Factor Music
Genre : Progressive Metal, Avant-Garde Metal
Link : http://unexpect.com/unxpct/
Tracklist:
1. Unsolved Ideas of a Distorted Guest
2. Words
3. Orange Vigilantes
4. Mechanical Phoenix
5. The Quantum Symphony
6. Unfed Pendulum
7. In the Mind of the Last Whale
8. Silence This Parasite
9. A Fading Stance
10. When the Joyful Dead Are Dancing
11. Until Yet a Few More Deaths Do Us Part
I know I’m not the first to say it, and I’m sure I won’t be the last to say it either….UNEXPECT are a friggin’ hard band to review. While they are obviously easiest described as an avant-garde progressive metal group, the fact is that each of their albums so far have included bits and pieces of every type of music you could ever think of, and as you would presume each album has been as chaotic and brain-draining as anything else you’ve likely ever heard. Their third album FABLES OF THE SLEEPLESS EMPIRE has recently been released and once again it’s a mish-mash of everything that really deserves to be heard.
Get one thing straight first though, this album is definitely not for putting on in the background, or for driving around in the car either for that matter, no, this is music that needs to be listened to with your full attention totally uninterrupted. Imagine if you will a death metal circus show with a mix of extreme male vocals, clean female gothic style vocals, epic multi-layered vocal sections, some black metal vibes and some fantastic technically proficient musicianship that includes organs and violins and you’ll be some way to understanding just what in the hell is going on here.
The problem I had personally with the album is that with all of the madness going on, there’s not a lot here that feels much like an actual song. This is only a personal preference though, and even though I probably won’t go back for another listen any time soon I totally enjoyed every second of the eight or nine journeys I made during my time with the album. From a technical standpoint, the album is very, very impressive and shows a bunch of very able musicians who are wholly dedicated to their craft, and I mean that each member of this band plays at such a high level of proficiency that they would be able to use this album in the future as a resume to basically grant them an audience with just about any progressive metal band in the world that may be looking for new members.
I’d be stretching the truth if I said that I totally ‘got’ everything that was going on while listening to FABLES OF THE SLEEPLESS EMPIRE, but I still feel that I can honestly recommend the album to anybody that likes their progressive music confronting, interesting and psychopathic. Worth a look for fans of DEVIN TOWNSEND, ZU, PROTEST THE HERO or Asian proggers KEKAL.
Written By ZeeZee
Rating : 8/10
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