UNORTHODOX CREATIVE CRITERIA

Sub-genre: Extreme/Tech Prog Metal (Death Metal interlaced with lots of Jazz Fusion)
For Fans of: Destroy, Erase, Improve era Meshuggah, Cynic, Martyr
Vocal Style: Cookie Monster
Guitar Style: Broad range of Metal/Rock/Jazz tones. Many Holdsworth style solos over heavy compresed metal grinds
Keyboard Style: Polysynth saw waves with various string and brass patches
Percussion Style: Standard rock kit used with extreme dynamics
Bass Style: Fretless electric ranging from heavy picked to slapped and jazzy walks
Other Instruments: Beautiful string arrrangement on Glimpses

Summary: Chile's Coprofago is often accused of being a Meshuggah clone. It is true that much of their sound is remeniscent of Meshuggah, the booming guitars, polyrhythmic drumming, Holdsworth-esque guitar solos, and death Metal vocals. But Coprofago maintains a firm foothold on their jazz roots. Previous work by Coprofago was peppered with jazzy undistorted breaks, but Unorthadox Creative Criteria takes their love of jazz to a new level. In fact, the second half of the album has only two songs that would be even remotely considered metal. It is best to review the album on a song be song basis. Song ratings take into account how the fit in the overall work, not just how the work individually.
1. Crippled Tracker - A staccato blast of polyrhythmic metal, similar to much of what was offered on Genesis, complete with a spacey close and Holdsworth toned guitar solo.(4/5)
2. The Inborn Mechanics - Starts as a thrashing metal piece that morphs into a jazzy bridge with atonal guitar solo and short bass answer. Fades to an ambient mix of metal guitars and synth. (5/5)
3. Neutralized - Intro speed is increased for this number. The strength in this song is in the break. An expansive reverbed out guitar solo gives the song character, but the machine gun style of the main theme is a little hard to enjoy. (3/5)
4. Merge Into - A quiet interlude of guitar synth very much like late 80's Holdsworth (4/5)
5. Fractures - The most uninteresting part of the album. Pretty much a straight forward Death Metal song (2/5)
6. Hostile Silent Raptures - Polyrhythmic grind, much stronger and more interesting than Fractures. Bridge is a talk back part with a funky bass break. Closes with a long resolution guitar solo and synth guitar. (4/5)
7. Streams - Album starts to get really interesting at this point. Difficult song to describe. Electronica elements interspersed with Eric Johnson-esque guitar work. Short chamber string break included. (4.5/5)
8. Isolated through Multiplicity - Very strong instrumental jazz/metal fusion song. Opens with guitar-synth sqare waves backed by double bass. Much of this song sounds like it could have come from Holdsworths Sand. Perhaps the best song on the album. (5/5)
9. Individual Choice - Another smoking jazz piece with a short metal break. Its just a lot of fun to hear these guys go off on this kind of stuff. (5/5)
10. Glimpses - One would think that a band known for playing metal would have a metal song be their most sinister piece, but this song consists entirely of chamber strings and background subteranean ambience. Very evil sounding with absolutely no distorted guitars. Exemplifies the album title to an extreme. (5/5)
11. Constriction - These guys want to beat you silly with contrast. Coming out of Glimpses, we get assaulted with the noisiest part of the album. It works pretty well when taken in context. (3.5/5)
12. Motion - Starts with a simple bass line and almost electronica sound with ambient synth vibes. Resolves into a beautiful instrumental jazz/fusion piece. Some of their best work. (5/5)
13. Wavelength - Interesting piece in that they incorporate the death metal vox into jazz/fusion directly for the first time. Alarming at first, it starts to grow. This song cycles repeatedly through fusion/metal and throws in strings to add to the mix. (4.5/5)

Overall the strong parts of Unorthadox Creative Criteria are extremely strong, the weak parts are short and tolerable. For my part, I consider this a 5 star album. But it is definitely not for everybody. Undoubtedly hated by metal purists. Get Unorthadox Creative Criteria if you: 1. Like stylistic blends. 2. Are tolerant of death metal vocals for the sake of wonderfully creative music.

Stylistically the material on "Unorthodox Creative Criteria" is technical metal featuring alien futuristic atmospheres and the occasional nod towards jazz/fusion. When the band are most raw and technical they sound almost one to one like Meshuggah did on "Destroy Erase Improve (1995)". It's actually almost to the point of being scary. It's everything from the raw shouted vocals, to the angular odd-metered heavy riffs, to the way the lead guitars create atmosphere, to the Holdsworthian jazz/fusion influenced guitar solos, to the drumming. Coprofago occasionally break out of that sound and do something a little different and when that happens it's a relief to hear them play something a bit more personal (there are several atmospheric jazz/fusion influenced parts on the album and also some nods towards death metal), and discover that they don't just exist to emulate Meshuggah (which they othwerwise do very well).

Coprofago are an incredibly well playing band, and they master their instruments and the different vocal styles on the album to perfection. "Unorthodox Creative Criteria" also features a powerful and well sounding production, so imagine how great this album would have been, had it not been (for the most part) a tribute to another band. If you can't get enough of "Destroy Erase Improve (1995)" and don't care if it's Meshuggah playing, then I can highly recommend "Unorthodox Creative Criteria", but if you crave something a bit more unique this may not be your pick. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is still warranted for the high quality of the album as a product.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)