UTOPIA

"Utopia" is the debut full-length studio album by Canadian avant garde metal act Unexpect. The album was self-released by the band in 1999. "Utopia" was released 7 years before Unexpect´s critically acclaimed breakthrough album "In a Flesh Aquarium (2006)". The band hadn´t been inactive in those 7 years though as they released an EP called "We, Invaders" in 2003.

The music on "Utopia" is unmistakably the sound of Unexpect. If you are familiar the avant garde metal style they play on "In a Flesh Aquarium" you won´t be surprised by how they sound on "Utopia". "Utopia" is just a pretty imature version of the music style on the excellent "In a Flesh Aquarium". Unexpect mix genres like thrash metal/ black metal/ death metal/ symphonic metal/ Avant garde and power metal which gives them their own unique sound. The vocal style is generally very aggressive but there are semi-operatic female vocals on the album too. The compositions are as mentioned a bit imature though and the album comes off inconsistent and a bit amaturish as a consequence of the songwriting but the musicianship on "Utopia" is also a bit shaky and some parts suffer quite a bit because of that.

The worst part of "Utopia" and the part that almost completely ruins my listening experience is the production though. The sound is weak, empty and seriously lacking power. The guitars sound powerless and the drums (which by the way are a bit to busy for comfort during some of the calm parts on the album) have an awful sound. The sound on the album is pretty much what I´d call demo quality and not of the good kind.

I´d say "Utopia" is a hardcore fan thing only. I´m not even sure the hardcore fans will enjoy this too much. Imature songwriting, bad sound production and shaky musicianship adds up to a 1.5 - 2 star rating.