IN A FLESH AQUARIUM

To start reviewing this album I must try not to fall into the cliche of "this band is the craziest... this is the weirdest... never have I heard... bla bla bla". But, man is it hard not too! For it is true! This band is indeed crazy. Just look at their line up: Two guitarist/singers, a female singer, a violinist, a keyboard player, a drummer (so far not that crazy you might say, right?) and a 9 string bass player... ok, so the only really crazy thing about the line up is the 9 string bass player... still, pretty ludacris stuff, people!

Now that I have made the band and line up introduction, I shall move on to the music. The music...it´s quite extreme! They never stay in one place for too long and never play the same thing twice, it´s all about variations and changes in this music. To give you a general idea of what they sound like you would have to take Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, pour some Meshuggah into the mix, add two coups of Circus music, shake, not disturb, for three minutes... and leave it in the sun for a weak. Yes, I think that explains it pretty well! Seriously now, you have to listen to them to understan what they are all about. At first it´s all noise, very heavy noise. But with each listen you will find out more and more layers until you begin to get it, and once you do... wow! Be prepared to be delightfully astonished! Of course this all sounds like heaven, and it might be for some, but unless you are into really complex, weird compositions and heavy (and I do mean heavy) metal, I would advise to check out some other stuff first.

The album is divided into 10 songs, that go from 5 to 10 minutes, I will not go song by song, I will only name a few of them, which might not be necesarly the best ones (as they are all great) but I think the ones that best represent the album. Chromatic Chimera, the first track is one of the best songs of the album. Great opener, intense, shifting (well, which isn´t?) and full of intelligent melodies (I´m not sure that makes much sense... but doesn´t it sound good?). The vocal job here is incredible! Very Avant Garde I must say! Desert Urbania is my favorite track, probaby the one with more hook, this will surely become the classic song in their career. Silence_011010701 is a solo number by keyboarder ExoD (yes, they all have this kind of names) with a bit of help in the violins at the begining by Le Bateleur (see, I told you) that consists of samples and atmospheric keys. It´s a great change of scenery from the previous ultra heavy, ultra complex songs and it shows that this band can be very varied. Melomaniac trees (yes, I know, the names of this songs are great!!!) is probably the most black metal rooted song of them all. The violin is the stand out here, although not incredible technical, in fact what stands out here is the simplicity of it´s melodies, which work out perfectly! And last but not least we have the three divided track The Shiver, that goes from the anticipating build ups, to the heaviest stuff on this album, to carnaval music and everything in between. The rest of the songs, as I have said earlier, are great too, but this are the stand outs. Now, it´s not all sunshine and rainbows. The album is one hour long, there are 10 songs here... it´s a bit too much. The music is so demanding that one hour might get a bit tiring. Had they cut down two songs, and probably get them on their next album, or Ep (that would be sweet) the album might have worked out better. But, it´s not the case, and it might not even be a problem for some people, but in my book it´s an inconvenient.

So, to summon things up, if you like extreme metal and Avant Garde, look no further, this is it!!! This is the album you have been looking for all this time. For those fo you that still can´t get into Tales of topographic oceans... mmm, might want to wait a bit!

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