• Genres

    • « | Home | »

    Unexpect – Fables of the Sleepless Empire (2011)

    By killer_roach | June 13, 2011

    Canadian avant-garde metallers Unexpect sure do take their sweet time in coming up with a new album, having only now released a followup to 2006′s In A Flesh Aquarium, the album that first brought them to prominence in the progressive metal space and got them to tour alongside bands like Mastodon, Dream Theater, and Opeth.  But what to make of a band that has only released three full-length albums in a fifteen-year career?

    Fables Of The Sleepless Empire sounds immediately familiar to those familiar with Unexpect’s sound – a wave of musical chaos that’s about the sonic equivalent of letting a band of gypsies re-enact The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Where the new album distances itself from In A Flesh Aquarium is a greater emphasis on melodic elements and attempting to create a more approachable, accessible album than its predecessor.

    THE GOOD:

    It’s A Sub-Genre Grab Bag! – The first track, “Unsolved Ideas of a Distorted Guest”, does an excellent job of preparing the listener what they are in for, and in the first couple of minutes of the seven-minute track, no less.  Is that some Dimmu Borgir-esque symphonic elements?  A nod to Epica’s “beauty and the beast” approach?  Some of The Mars Volta’s chaotic polyrhythms?  …Wait, was that some Meshuggah-inspired djent?  The answers are yes, yes, yes, and yes.  The fact that it all comes together in a coherent package, much less something actually listenable and enjoyable, is incredible.

    Strong Melodic Ideas – Probably the biggest shock to people familiar with In A Flesh Aquarium, the new album actually carries sweeping, engaging melodic ideas from both instrumentation and vocals at varying points… while still not a fundamental aspect of their musical range, it shows the ability to incorporate more than the crazy, unsettling chaos that previous material exhibited in spades – while amplifying the effect of the crazier passages that they manage to continue to pack in.

     

    THE BAD:

    The Shorter Tracks – “In The Mind Of The Last Whale”, “A Fading Stance”, and “Until Yet A Few More Deaths Do Us Part” are, without question, the weakest tracks on the album.  They work okay as interludes (and, in the case of the latter of them, a coda to the album), but the fact that they’re three of the final five tracks on the album makes me wonder whether or not the band was starting to run out of ideas.

     

    THE “WTF?”:

    The Title “Orange Vigilantes” – I’m used to some odd titles from avant-garde songs, but really?  (On the same hand, the title is kinda Zappa-esque, which I have to give them a nod for, even if the song seems more like a second part to “Chromatic Chimera” from their previous album.)

     

    THE PREVIEW:

     

    THE VERDICT:

    Fables Of The Sleepless Empire, through further incorporation of melodic elements to their style, have seemingly reinvigorated their sound to further distinguish themselves in an increasingly crowded avant-garde extreme metal space where everyone seems to be in a race to craft the weirdest, most chaotic album possible.  By taking a step back, Unexpect hasn’t quite created a masterpiece, but have an incredibly strong album nonetheless, and certainly one of the more “fun” extreme metal albums out there (there’s another that needs mention, but that will wait for next week).

     

    8.75/10

     

    Date of release: 31 May 2011

    Total running time: 59:46

    1. Unsolved Ideas Of A Distorted Guest – 6:54

    2. Words – 5:57

    3. Orange Vigilantes – 4:55

    4. Mechanical Phoenix – 6:55

    5. The Quantum Symphony – 6:04

    6. Unfed Pendulum – 7:55

    7. In The Mind Of The Last Whale – 2:58

    8. Silence This Parasite – 5:19

    9. A Fading Stance – 2:06

    10. When The Joyful Dead Are Dancing – 4:38

    11. Until Yet A Few More Deaths Do Us Part – 2:05

    Topics: 2010s, Avant-garde, Experimental Metal, Progressive Metal | No Comments »

    Comments