THE PAINTER'S PALETTE

This is truly one of the most interesting albums I have heard. Intense, dissonant, and unsettling, it is certainly unique. The band rips through blistering hardcore sections, eerie electronic noises, and even eerier Avant-Jazz with incredible musicianship and skill. I think this album is a concept album of some sort, something to do with an artist going insane it seems. Ephel Duath's use of angular melodies and disonance create an intense, deranged, atmosphere that is very unique. Tracks like "Praha", and "The Passage" (along with any part of the album with that killer trumpet player) demonstrate this perfectly.

However, I do have a few qualms with this album. The vocals, especially the clean ones, are very weak. I'm a bit ignorant when it comes to "Hardcore" vocals, so i can't really tell if Luciano George Lorusso's screams are particularly good ones, but the clean vocals really stand out as being underdeveloped. Honestly, any suburban teenager singing with his garage band could probably do as good.

One of my biggest dissapointments with this album was the fact that none of the tracks are as good as the opener, which is really too bad because the rest of them are generally longer. "Praha" was amazing, as well as a few sections of other songs, but sometimes a poor structure of lack of melodic development makes me itch for the skip button.

Also, it doesn't sound so much like Ephel Duath are fusing two genres, and more sort of just... alternating between them really fast. It gets to the point where you can hear "METALCORE METALCORE METALCO-- doodley-bee doo wop be doodle wop --METALMETALMETALMETAL...". It's not so much fusion as it is just... mashing sh*t together. Like they're just flipping a switch that makes everything all fast 'n' angry at regular intervals. For the most part, this is not a true fusion of Jazz and Metal; It's just a band that can play both really, really well.

And that's sort of the redeeming quality with this album. Both styles are played to perfection, with stunning technicality and musicianship. Heck, occasionally they even overlap gracefully, and we get a few blissful minutes of perfectly structured, balanced, and awesome-as-hell fusion metal.

Certainly not perfect, but the unique aesthetic, stunning musicianship, and energy make-up for its shortcomings. 3 stars!!