LYE BY MISTAKE

this furiously quick experimental medley of brainstormed ideas burst in my ears like a thunderous roar and so undecided it restlessly changes its music from aggressive and sikth-influenced mathcore to sensational jazz fusion usually also acquainted to other musical influences impersonated through undistorted guitars such as japanese music bossa nova country or even latin jazz so in the end we get a rather insane structure and conceptual mindset of speed and restlessness incessant transitions a plethora of different genres and its never giving the listener a break or a chance to actually absorb the magical and unmagical moments they were subjected to and too when the annoying vocalist stop screaming like a lunatic monkey or use weird sound effects to distort his voice in boldly experimental ways and the instruments are given the spotlight the so called jazz fusion parts are the moments where sparks of brilliance shines like a jewel and demonstrate that lye by mistakes truest potential is yet to be faceted but happily we from the future already know what it means that is the culmination of lyes abilities fea jur their following album for those unaware so i would say beware those to embark arrangements for fulminating vective because despite being polished extremely well crafted and made by some of the most technically proficient builders in this world this spacecraft flies way beyond mach 10 and it cares little whether thats inhumanly hospitable or not

FEA JUR is LYE BY MISTAKE's last album. It is entirely instrumental and focused on guitar prowess, as it does perfectly.

The vein of the album is somewhere of a fusion between high-paced jazz and endlessly complex mathcore elements. Every track is detailed, nuanced, built upon a baroque structure. The songs, while characteristically aggressive as one would expect of the "-core" piece, is simultaneously melodic and rhythmically pleasing as "jazz" implies.

As aforementioned, the focus is on the guitar (although all musicians deserve praise for their input here, the drums are particularly flabbergasting), delivered impeccably. Expect sweeps, tapping, shredding, acoustic and electric guitars, all sorts of techniques that would otherwise be thought as "emotionless" or "technical wankery". Regularly, technical pieces sound awful because it makes us feel that it's difficult for the sake of trying to appear virtuoso. The thing is, LYE BY MISTAKE, from the very first time, make it clear that's bull[&*!#]. That exact thing is an integral part of their art to be complex, fast-paced, technical; it's not just a show-off.

Regarding "jazz", it's not a word used for appealing purposes. LYE BY MYSTAKE really deliver some smooth, enjoyable funky licks while Josh's frenzied guitar ecstatically shreds in the background, bringing us a duality between the soothing and the energetic, between simple jazzy guitar and pharaonic math-metal complexity. Picturing this might seem unpleasing, naturally, as some things that are seen as too polar mixed together is not intuitive. LYE BY MISTAKE goes beyond intuition, and points you're wrong, that some things until then unmixable actually fit together astoundingly well.

What is Futurism? An avant-garde European artistic movement from the 20th Century, whose philosophical bases were, as Wikipedia describes, "It emphasized speed, technology, youth, and violence[...]". We can take two conclusions from that:

A. They were innovative, hence "avant-garde". Perhaps they could be reviving an old idea, perhaps they might be creating a new one; that's disregardable as what matters is that it triumphed;

B. It's aggressive, it's vicious, it's rapid.

Look at the FEA JUR's cover art. It pictures a horse - the epitome of the "speed" idealism for a long time in European culture -; it uses vibrant red (orange, but let's pretend red) which unconsciously brings the idea of passion; it seems dynamic, with the lines scrawled on a way that connotes movement. The essence of Futurism is speed, dynamism, and passion. What would happen if those idealizers were alive in the 21st Century and decided to listen to music? They would listen to LYE BY MISTAKE and weep, because they know there's a group of lads out there that synthesized their concept perfectly. LYE BY MYSTAKE might not know it, it might not have been their intention, but they did it.

... and it's effing fantastic.

As someone constantly on the lookout for new and exciting music to dig into, there are few things more refreshing than discovering a new excellent band. Lye By Mistake may have started out rooted in the mathcore scene, and while even hearing the 'mathcore' label tossed around a band would have me avoid it like the plague, Lye By Mistake's second album has evidently disposed of their original style for something else that would be best described as a perfect incarnation of jazz fusion metal. Essentially, take the music of a jazz guitarist like Pat Metheny, add in a sheath of technical metal, and out comes Lye By Mistake's second album 'Fea Jur', an album that will quickly repulse any metalhead with a slight aversion to jazz music, but perfect for anyone who would like to see what can be accomplished with the jazz metal style.

All of the music here is completely instrumental, and all things considered, this was a great decision for Lye By Mistake. Listening to the intense technicality and quirky heaviness of the album, having any sort of vocals on top of the music would tend to distract from what could not otherwise be the greatest aspect of the band's sound; the instrumentation. With the exception of a quaint acoustic piece that comes before the closing track, the music here keeps the energy and showmanship up, alternating between the jazz and progressive metal elements. The metal leaning side of 'Fea Jur' seems to be derived somewhat from the 'djent' sound innovated by Meshuggah, at least as far as the percussive rhythm guitars are concerned. The main focus is often on the lead guitars though, which bind the light and heavy aspects of Lye By Mistake together by the fact that regardless of the dynamic the band is playing, it's usually a safe bet that the lead guitar is blistering away with some mind- numbingly technical exercise. Although this may sound exhausting and even boring on paper, the way that Josh Bauman layers the guitars and incorporates memorable sections of melody and weirdness into his leads is incredible, and even being someone that has become somewhat opposed to the tired concept of guitar virtuoso albums, 'Fea Jur' manages to stay very interesting.

Although the album is specialized towards a very particular brand of jazz metal that some may find incredibly indulgent (and it is), 'Fea Jur' is one of very few albums I have heard in the genre of metal that is able to do its jazz elements a proper justice. Quite often, Lye By Mistake will feel like a jazz band that dabbles in metal, as opposed to the contrary, and this only works towards the band gaining a more distinct voice in my ears. A jazzy masterpiece from these talented instrumentalists.

The music is on the EP is quite spastic in nature and features many sudden abrupt shifts between intense extreme technical metal/hardcore parts with screaming aggressive vocals and mellower jazzy sections. References to an act like The Dillinger Escape Plan are valid. The songs are rather short and that turns out to be somewhat a blessing as each and every one of them leaves me exhausted and breathing for air.

The musicianship is outstanding on the EP and my only complaint when we´re talking musicianship is the vocals. I have a hard time enjoying the screaming schizophrenic vocal attack. An aquired taste for sure though and you should take a listen yourself to see if they suit your tastes better than mine.

The production is not fully professional. At least it´s not up to par with what I expect from a professional production. It lacks power and it´s a bit murky too.

"The Fabulous" ends up being an EP I don´t really enjoy much but quality can´t be denied and a 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is deserved. I mostly base my rating on the excellent musicianship and even though I don´t find the compositions very interesting I guess they are well composed if you enjoy the style.