#18: Unexpect - Fables Of The Sleepless Empire (2011)---TRACKLIST---(1) Unsolved Ideas Of A Distorted Guest (2) Words (3) Orange Vigilantes (4) Mechanical Phoenix (5) The Quantum Symphony
(6) Unfed Pendulum (7) In The Mind Of The Last Whale (8) Silence This Parasite (9) A Fading Stance
(10) When The Joyful Dead Are Dancing (11) Until Yet A Few More Deaths Do Us Part
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Unexpect, to sum them up in seven words would be something like “What the hell am I listening to”. They’re one of the craziest, weirdest, most insane-sounding bands out there, and they’re freaking amazing. This is their most recent album, and while it’s still crazy as hell, it’s not quite as ridiculous as their previous record, In A Flesh Aquarium. It’s more “controlled madness” as opposed to “sheer insanity”. Therefore, if you’re new to the band I definitely recommend checking out this record first. Songs like
Unsolved Ideas Of A Distorted Guest and
Words are quite accessible for the band while still being incredibly avant-garde, and the same could be said for most of the other songs on the album. There seems to be more of a focus on the female vocals and violin than on the previous record, and the album sounds quite bright and majestic, as opposed to the very dark and disturbing In A Flesh Aquarium. (We’ll get more in-depth about that album sometime later…) Other great songs are
The Quantum Symphony,
Unfed Pendulum, and the
final three tracks that form the excellent suite Until Yet A Few More Deaths Do Us Part. There’s a lot to love on this album, as long as you aren’t turned off by something more on the strange side.
---FAVORITE SONGS---Unsolved Ideas Of A Distorted Guest,
Words,
The Quantum Symphony,
Unfed Pendulum, Until Yet A Few More Deaths Do Us Part (the
final three tracks)
#17: Gojira - The Way Of All Flesh (2008)---TRACKLIST---(1) Oroborus (2) Toxic Garbage Island (3) A Sight To Behold (4) Yama's Messengers (5) The Silver Chord (6) All The Tears
(7) Adoration For None (8) The Art Of Dying (9) Esoteric Surgery (10) Vacuity (11) Wolf Down The Earth
(12) The Way Of All Flesh
Gojira, simply put, is everything that’s good about metal. With their face smashing but incredibly creative guitar work, amazing drumming, awesome vocals and fantastic composition skills, they’re hands-down one of the greatest bands in the genre. The Way Of All Flesh contains all of these good elements, and is my personal favorite of their albums. Once again, what makes this album shine is its songs. There are barely any weak tracks, you’ve got some of their best songs, and there’s enough variety to hold your interest from start to finish.
Toxic Garbage Island is insanely heavy and features some guitar work that only Gojira could pull off, and
A Sight To Behold introduces some electronic elements to their usual sound, like synth-focused verses and a vocal filter that makes Joe sound like some kind of pissed off alien robot. The real standout tracks are the more epic and progressive songs.
The Art Of Dying goes on for almost ten minutes and has several epic-sounding segments that give me goosebumps every time I hear them, and the title track
The Way Of All Flesh closes off the album on a strong note. (Minus the fact that it has one of those “hidden” songs tacked onto the end that makes the song appear three times longer than it actually is.) There’s not much else to saw about this record other than it truly is one of the greatest metal albums of all time.
---FAVORITE SONGS---Toxic Garbage Island,
A Sight To Behold,
The Art Of Dying,
The Way Of All Flesh