THE PAINTER'S PALETTE

This is an amazing Italian band who are truly unlike anything I've ever heard before. Ephel Duath plays jazz metal, with musical ideas flowing from classical to black metal. Vocals range from hardcore screaming to melodic singing that tends to remind me of John Wetton on certain tracks. The band changes time signatures and melodies constantly, in one second you can hear beautiful fusion melodies or trumpet riffing, and in the next smashing guitar distortion. The combination of the vocals, electric and acoustic melodies, throbbing bass, jazzy drumming, and trumpet solos that seem to come of thin air end up all coming together perfectly. This album could have been a complete disaster, a mess of instruments. But it's not. Ephel Duath pulls it off with an essential album that cannot be described in words.