Insanity Squared ( Unexpect- Fables of the Sleepless Empire)

Out there, odd, strange, schizophrenic, weird, batshit crazy: these are all words that can be used to describe the sound of this band. If you've heard the band before you know what to expect, and you know that they are aptly named, because honestly you never know what to expect from them. The song structures are ever changing, and I mean that to the fullest extent that that term can be used. It's Avant-Garde in one of its most pure forms.

To describe the sound of this band, think of totally chaotic riffs, in odd time signatures and they are constantly changing, weaving, and getting more odd.

its like
for instance
Ifyoujust DEcI ded onedayto
neglect
every single Grammar and writing rulE
and just wrote
HOWEVER THE FUCK YOU FEEL.


Get the picture? One thing I really enjoyed about this release is the bass. It's constantly present to the exact right degree. Its extremely technical and adds great depth and character to the music, and its something that lots of metal bands have lost touch with. The guitars are chaotic and riffy, there's a lot of use of piano and violins and out of character stuff like that. The vocals range from a black metal type of throaty mid pitched shriek trading off with female clean vocals and the occasional clean male vocals. The drums are nothing stunningly mind-blowing but they do a damn good job considering the amount of transitions, tempo shifts and stuff that's going on with the music.

The production is clear without being overly polished and refined, and you can hear each of the many elements that this album has, which is good because a bad production job could really ruin an album like this and make it like a wall of chaotic brown noise. At times things do get a tiny bit cluttered because of the enormous amount of things going on, but that's not a huge gripe and these moments are made less detracting by the production job that I mentioned.

The lyrics are as you would UN expect: very strange and out there, they even have a song about pumpkin vigilantes overthrowing the rule of man, excellent concept if you ask me. The only real gripe I have with this album is that it's a tad too long, and some people will have trouble listening to a whole album that's this schizophrenic. Also if you aren't already a fan of avant-garde music I wouldn't start with this release, and if you like clearly defined song structure STAY AWAY. All in all a great release, and a truly insane experience.

89/100