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UNDESTROYED

Free Salamander Exhibit

RIO/Avant-Prog


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Free Salamander Exhibit Undestroyed album cover
4.10 | 72 ratings | 4 reviews | 28% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
prog rock music collection

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Studio Album, released in 2016

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Unreliable Narrator (5:23)
2. The Keep (5:42)
3. The Gift (9:56)
4. Time Master (5:21)
5. Undestroyed (10:11)
6. Atheists' Potluck (4:28)
7. Oxen Of The Sun (9:20)

Total time 50:21

Line-up / Musicians

- Nils Frykdahl / vocals, guitar, flute
- Michael Mellender / guitar, trumpet, percussion, percussion-guitar
- Drew Wheeler / guitar, glockenspiel, Theremin
- Dan Rathbun / bass, various homemade instruments
- David Shamrock / drums, glockenspiel

Releases information

CD and Digital Web Of Mimicry (December 16, 2016)

Thanks to Nogbad_The_Bad for the addition
and to NotAProghead for the last updates
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FREE SALAMANDER EXHIBIT Undestroyed ratings distribution


4.10
(72 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(28%)
28%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(32%)
32%
Good, but non-essential (19%)
19%
Collectors/fans only (8%)
8%
Poor. Only for completionists (12%)
12%

FREE SALAMANDER EXHIBIT Undestroyed reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Nogbad_The_Bad
FORUM & SITE ADMIN GROUP RIO/Avant/Zeuhl & Eclectic Team
5 stars It seems like an eternity since Sleepytime Gorilla Museum folded and there has been an aching hole in the music scene begging for an angry experimental avant-metal band. Finally emerging from the ashes comes Free Salamander Exhibit, featuring 4 members of SGM and really only missing Carla's violin & vocals, there is now worthy successor to the SGM legacy. To be clear, this is not SGM, but this is a fully formed band releasing a monster of an album that would happily stack up with the best experimental avant metal bands out there. It's great to see Nils & the guys back playing this kind of music. I was a bit worried that it wouldn't meet expectations but this is a stone cold classic.
Review by TCat
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
5 stars After almost 10 years with no more 'Sleepytime Gorilla Museum', and what is this? A new band with a similar name, 'Free Salamander Exhibit' . . . hmmm sounds interesting. That's how I stumbled across this band in Prog Archives, and imagine my delight to find out that 4 of the 5 SGM members are in this band. FSE is only missing Carla Kihlstedt, which is a shame, but I had to find this album. Well find it I did. And I am happy to have the eclectic, wild music of 'Idiot Flesh' and SGM once again.

So far, Free Salamander Exhibit has only released this one album, but hopefully there will be more to come. If you have heard the previous incarnations of this band, then you know what to expect. The music is correctly placed under the RIO/Avant Prog category, but it also has elements of Progressive Metal, but with the effective use of dynamics. It is closer to the music of SGM than Idiot Flesh, in that it is heavier, but if you don't like the heaviness of metal, you shouldn't shy away from this. There is nothing like this music out there, it is complex, heavy, funny, and brilliant. The other difference from Prog Metal is the fact that it is totally unpredictable, and has a very complex sound with changing meters, non-standard structures, and the use of various instruments not found in Prog Metal.

This starts out with 'Unreliable Narrator' which begins with a dirty, somewhat growly vocal, which you will get once in a while. It is heavy, so be warned. But also know, I am usually turned off from these kinds of vocals unless the music is interesting enough that the vocals don't diminish the quality of the instrumental parts. But you will notice that the vocals are more melodic in the 2nd track 'The Keep' and you will also notice the complexity and the absolutely unique song structure which makes this a heavy avant-prog production.

'The Gift' continues this complexity as this song stretches to 10 minutes, and in this one you will get both dirty and clean vocals, but you will also notice that the vocals are also dramatic and sometimes quite crazy. It's because the songs are more story-like than what you normally hear in heavier music. The complexity of the music and the lyrics is what makes this music so excellent. The different vocalists also create different characters in each track.

'Time Master' moves away from the heaviness a bit, but continues with the lunacy. The guitars are more jangly in this one, there is some cowbell, and some brass in there too. This is also a lighter track, but not in complexity, more in tone, with a comedic edge to it. It is more similar to the Idiot Flesh sound, but with the dark and dissonant harmonics of SGM. There is some similarity to the oddness of some of Frank Zappa's more eclectic music.

'Undestroyed' is the 10 + minute title track. It starts out in a pastoral mood with bells, bass and flute. You actually think there might be some sanity in this music, that is until vocals start, sung softly but in a high register, and sounding quite paranoid. The vocals become more normal and the pastoral sound continues, but becomes more intense. Both singing and spoken vocals continue, then a nice flute/reed melody plays over the nervous vocals. The 6/8 meter is the most conventional meter played on this entire album, and also the most consistent, since in all the other tracks the meter is always changing. Things get more intense as it continues and vocals get harsher. Then at 7 minutes, the inevitable happens, the consistency of the song falls apart as it gets more progressive and heavier. A minute later, it finally falls into a standard 4/4 meter, but by this time, everything has gone nutty, so it doesn't matter. Then we return to the pastoral beginning, but somehow, everything isn't okay anymore.

'Athiests' Potluck' is a great instrumental, that starts out sounding like it might be accessible, but as it continues, it becomes more progressive.

'Oxen of the Sun' is the closer of the album and it goes over 9 minutes. Distant sounds of horses and an army trumpet starts off, but is quickly interrupted by dissonant power chords. The track is carried by a slower tempo, but with an odd meter. Crazy, nervous vocals start along with some strange guitar effects. There is a great progressive riff that pops up every so often as the unconventional singing continues. A sudden change in tempo at around 3:30 turns the song quite frantic. Several different vocal styles are present, some growling, some more dramatic. Then a wild guitar solo starts at 5:30. Awesomeness follows with some extreme prog.

Ahhhh it's so great to have these guys back again. I do miss the influence that Carla had on the band, but the complexity, the avant-proginess, the drama, the insanity is all still there. I just love this music, it is so unique, so dynamic and so untraditional. You just have to hear it to believe it. I only expected maybe a four star debut for this new incarnation of SGM, but the music is just as great as before. Easily a 5 star album. I can't believe they are not as popular on this site as they should be.

Review by siLLy puPPy
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic
4 stars The first splinter group to form after the grand closing of the Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, FREE SALAMANDER EXIT formed in 2012 the year after the last SGM album and pretty much served as the next step following the Nils Frykdahl and Dan Rathbun list of challenging musical bands that began in the 80s with Acid Rain, came to fruition in the 90s with Idiot Flesh and then taken to world class sophistication in the 2000s with the Sleepytimes when they took the world's stage to woo avant-gardists with some of the most bizarre twisted metal meets prog ever.

Basically the Sleepytimes with a different lineup, FREE SALAMANDER EXIT which takes its name from the same mythology of the Sleepytime Gorilla Press, features Museum curators Nils Frykdahl (vocals, guitar, flute), Dan Rathbun (bass, various homemade instruments) and Michael Mellender (guitar, trumpet, percussion). Also rejoining the merry band of mischief makers is percussionist David Shamrock who had quit the Museum after the debut "Grand Opening and Grand Closing."

While musically extremely similar to Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, FREE SALAMANDER EXIT is noticeably different with the absence of violinist of Carka Kihlstedt, a role that is mostly filled by Frykdahl's flute antics. New to the troupe is guitarist and rocker of theremins Drew Wheeler. So far FREE SALAMANDER EXIT has only released this one exotic specimen of avant-prog metal madness titled UNDESTROYED. It was released in 2016 to great fanfare and provided the perfect hit for those still undergoing withdrawal symptoms after their favorite psycho-prog metal band went by the wayside.

Most similar to the Sleepytime's final offering, the banteringly prog fueled avant-metal madness known as "In Glorious Times," UNDESTROYED navigates the same choppy musical turf with an extra dose of avant-prog angularities for your listening pleasure. Chock filled with time signature workouts from another dimension, the musical delivery is more on the metal side of things with heavy distorted guitars along with bass and drum bombast and of course Frykdahl's best demented metal vocal performances. Unlike SGM that features all kinds of strange atmospheric detours and non-metal mind [%*!#]s, FREE SALAMANDER EXIT is actually a lot more focused on a basic heavy metal prog type of sound influenced by "Red" era King Crimson and more modern bands like Sweden's Anekdoten.

UNDESTROYED features seven strong tracks at over 50 minutes of playing time. The tracks are often heavy and distorted and the band doesn't shy away from some of the most complex time signature craziness bringing the wild world of Henry Cow, Art Bears and other classic Rock In Opposition masters to the forefront as far as the primary influences are concerned. Of course these musicians are so comfortable working together at this point that past endeavors shine through whether ranging from the zaniness of Idiot Flesh or the serious angular nature of the Sleepytimes.

Laced with extreme syncopation effects, avant-funk fueled guitar workouts, more avant-prog time signature weirdness than should be allowed by law and a propensity for catchy yet unthinkably weird musical compositions, FREE SALAMANDER EXIT proves to be a worthy successor of the SGM heritage with just enough familiarities to attract the old fan club but just enough different sounding aspects to keep it separated from the main mothership by several degrees. An excellent and wildly bizarre supplemental project by members of the now legendary Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. It's unclear if this project was a one time event or will actually continue on especially now that SGM has been resurrected. Whatever the case, UNDESTROYED is a keeper. Perhaps not as epic sounding as the SGM itself but not a bad runner up.

Latest members reviews

5 stars Twisted and eccentric - and highly unique: 9/10 (Brief note to myself and to readers: the reviewing approach, in this case, digresses from what is common for me to do because assuming this is an album with few reviews I must be as pragmatic and utilitarian as possible. I would also appreciate fee ... (read more)

Report this review (#1737634) | Posted by Luqueasaur | Sunday, June 25, 2017 | Review Permanlink

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