BOOK OF HORIZONS

When it comes to Avant-garde, I only know three names so far: FRANK ZAPPA, OOIOO and SECRET CHIEFS 3.

FRANK needs no introduction, OOIOO has eloquently mastered the idea of "experimentation" with the great percussion-focused TAIGA madness, and SECRET CHIEFS 3 explores three frontiers on the album BOOK OF HORIZONS: Indian, electronic and technical (AND FURIOUS!) death metal. Be warned, though: this band isn't the type that brings up insanity and calls "music". There is mild experimentation, but nothing too much of a "paradigm shifter".

The electronic part is the most "avant-garde" of the three genres. It features uncommon sonorities and structures, usually, you're unsure whether the song has begun or ended and if what you're listening to is a particular section of that track; suddenly the music stops and weird noises come in, and overall is the least interesting piece. I find it to be the weakest link.

The Indian part is great and the first track with this sonority - The Four (Great Ishraqi Sun) - is perhaps the best of the album. SECRET CHIEFS does a good job blending Western music/metal/rock elements with the oriental instrumentations and structures. The percussion is superb and counterintuitive, which really spices the music.

The last piece - death metal - is the part they masterfully nailed. Simply put, they're natural born for it. The musicianship is amazing, the drums are spectacular and the aura of each song is just as horribly heavy as any extreme metal musician would seek to achieve. Extermination Angel the fourth track and first of the genre is my favorite by SECRET CHIEFS 3, and frankly, of death metal as a whole. Hypostasis of the Archons is even fiercer and pretty much denser than a neutron star. The vocalist literally snores. Like a damn pig. It's indisputably the heaviest thing I've had the pleasure of being brutalized with.

In the end, SECRET CHIEFS 3 does a good job in bringing a good record. The most memorable songs are The Four, Extermination Angel, Hypostasis of the Archons, Anthropomorphosis: Boxleitner (an eerie track that features ALL of the three 'frontiers', albeit the death metal parts are much milder and blended with electronic) and Book T: Exodus (in the veins of epic Western movies). I'd definitively recommend for avant-garde fans, or just people looking for some spicy mixtures of electronic, oriental-themed and extreme metal music.

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