IN A FLESH AQUARIUM

When you get a genre as broad as avant garde metal, you are certain to encounter some interesting and weird stuff. From the more doom and chamber elements within Maudlin Of The Well, to the 80s thrash adjacent sounds of Voivod, avant garde metal is as diverse as it can possibly get. So a release such as this from the Canadian metal group Unexpect ain't quite so far away from the crumb, but what they have going for in their sound is a joyous and ever changing dark cabaret opera.

What I really enjoy about this album is how truly technically efficient it all is from so many genres, kinda like Mr Bungle's Disco Volante, but with a higher focus on metal and amping up the craziness of it all. This album feels like an hour-long panic attack, bursting through several different seams that rarely, if ever, lets up, and the band plays this to their strengths. Lots of bouncy riffs that balance between tech death, to symphonic metal, to djent, etc and etc. with drum lines that batter you in the head. It really creates an enigmatic, and really fun experience similar to stuff from Others By No One, though that band is a lot younger than this group.

I also have to marvel at the vocals. I think it isn't how they sound and sing that makes me really like them, but how they just seem to keep up with this wild and frantic music that it all just seems so impressive to me. They range from angelic singing, to rough and crazy screams and growls, to stuff that kinda made me think David Tibet of Current 93 was singing on here. All of it is just fun to me, and I think what is found here is some high class experimental metal.

My one problem with this album, though, is that they seem to throw everything at the wall and hope it sticks with most, if not all of these songs. Most of the time it works really nicely, but other times I just think there is too much going on in one song that it over-stimulates me. This album definitely won't leave you bored, but, to me, cutting the madness a bit in some moments here and not trying new things too quickly can make this already entertaining album into a freak show masterpiece.

This album is not even close to being boring in the slightest. It is one of most fun metal records I have heard, and while I do think there is sometimes a bit too much, I think overall it all just works out as a highly invigorating record that any fan of more avant garde metal should look into.