Unexpect - Fables of the Sleepless Empire

Band: Unexpect
Album: Fables of the Sleepless Empire
Genre: Too many to list, I'm going to leave it at Avant-Garde + Progressive Metal

Release Date:  May, 2011

Length: 56 minutes

Tracks: 11
Country of Origin:  Canada

This was my favorite album for approximately 6 months.  For me, that is a VERY long time to hold that position.   

Unexpect manages to deliver a jaw-dropping blend of stunning composition and god-tier technical skill.  Every member of this band could easily (at least in my mind) outplay most anyone in the world with their respective instruments.  

While many modern bassists shy away from learning to play their instrument to its fullest potential, shying away and using only a string or two, ChaotH, Unexpect's bassist, instead chose to go further than the typical 4 or 5 string bass.  This man (if he's even a man at all), chooses to play a 9 string bass, and he does it with the utmost level of grace.  He manages to give this album a strong, jazzy backbone that feels nigh-unbreakable.  

The vocals are also superb.  I'm a firm believer that there isn't enough of a female presence in metal, and god, do we need to increase it.  One of the groups singers, Leïlindel, has one of the greatest voices I've ever heard.  She could sing to me about the death of my family, and I think I'd be too busy listening to actually register what she was telling me.

And then we get to some of the finer points:  this band incorporates a violin. 

I'm certain there are some people out there who are thinking, "Oh great, it's one of THOSE bands."  Give them a shot.  You'll thank me for it later.  The violin isn't over-powering like other metal bands that I've heard try to incorporate a violin.  It's definitely more of a supporting instrument in the way that it's played.  I'd say it's probably akin to having a second bassist, playing a smoother sounding instrument.

Enough about the band themselves, let's get onto the album.

The journey begins with with the track, "Unsolved Ideas Of A Distorted Guest."  This song is almost too much to handle for someone who's never listened to Unexpect before.  They follow up wisely with "Words," a deeply moving song that puts all 9 strings of ChaotH's bass to good work.  After that, we get the duo-songs, "Orange Vigilantes," and, "Mechanical Pheonix."  The two flow so well into each other that most are not even aware that the former song has ended until well into the latter.  "The Quantum Symphony" throws you into a nightmarish soundscape, and equally dark lyrics torment you in the entirety of your stay.  "Unfed Pendulum" slows things down a bit, but it remains every bit as weird and creepy.  It also features heavy use of samples to bring in a slight Noise influence.  Next, you get a 3 minutes interlude, "In the Mind of the Last Whale," before the violent exorcism that is "Silence this Parasite."  Finally, we reach the coup de grace of the album, the 3-part song(s), "A Fading Stance," "When the Joyful Dead Are Dancing," and, "Until Yet A Few More Deaths Do Us Part."  These are an intense 8 and a half minutes of the strangest love story ever told.

I get chills every time I listen to the opening bass line from "Words."  This is definitely one of my favorite albums.

My Rating:  4.75/5

http://unexpect.bandcamp.com/

Review by Ishmael