Unearth-Endless
(Eulogy, 2002)

After reading a lot about Unearth I was intersted to hear what all the noise was all about. To be honest, I wasn't expecting this to sound like this, and I really wasn't prepared either. Unearth are basically a combination of the heavier side of hardcore and Swedish death metal. They are extremely melodic at times, and then with little warning will snap into a breakdown riff that will catch you off guard and put you down for the count. It's staggering how much ground they cover in just a matter of minutes.

Think In Flames meets Earth Crisis and you'll still have no idea what's in store. It's like they take everything that makes both bands great and multiply it by a thousand. The band is tight, energetic, and simply flawless in terms of execution. The guitar riffs are absolutley pummelling for the most part, yet the band has a very melodic side, which is where the In Flames influence comes in. Some of the heaviest riffs you've ever heard will be followed by harmonized guitar lines. Where the band goes from there you just have to sit back and find out. This is one band that you definitely can't call predictable.

This is what Killswitch Enganged strives to be. They try to take the Swedish style and mix it with hardcore, and while I do like KE, Unearth totally blows them away. This band is heavy yet melodic, and above all just writes some great songs.

My only problem with this cd is that it's just over 15 minutes long. Sure, it's a MCD, but I want to here more! Then again it just makes it even more amazing to see how much this band covers in just 15 minutes.

With the lines between metal and hardcore becoming much more blurry, this is a band that could take both markets by storm. If you haven't had the chance to check out Unearth, or have been waiting to do so, go out and pick this up right away!

Unpersons-III
(At a Loss, 2003)

At a Loss is quickly becoming one of my favorite record labels. With bands like Meatjack, Swarm of the Lotus and now Unpersons they are becoming a mecca for heavy and original bands. To call Unpersons unique would be a definite understatement. The only description I can even think of is a schizophrenic who has stopped taking their medicine and is losing it. The bands music is just off the wall. Riffs fly around with wild abandon while the drums pummell everyone stupid enough to get in the way. It’s a high energy combination of hardcore, noisecore and rock n’ roll that really sounds like nothing you’ve heard before.

For those of you who like your music safe and predictable, stay away from this band, very far away. There aren’t really any moments on here that sound like any other bands. There overall musical approach is similar to what you’d expect from At A Loss, but much more out there. I guess you could almost say they sound like a cross between Jesus Lizard and Neurosis but played by an old school punk band. It’s lo fi and stripped down but far from being simple.

I guess there are people that like their music predictable. It feels safe knowing what to expect next. Well, fuck that. You have no idea what to expect next from this band. Just when you think you have it figured out, they throw in an insanely melodic guitar riff with harmony guitars. You really don’t know what to expect and that my friends is one thing that is definitely lacking these days in music.

The production is pretty lo-fi pretty much sticking to a live in the jam room type sound. It definitely is listenable and doesn’t hurt the impact of the music at all. If anything I’d say it helps it. It almost makes you think that this is somewhat older and wasn’t recorded in 2003. A typical production probably wouldn’t have hurt the originality of the band, but it might have lost some of the power. This is the ideal production for a band in the style of Unpersons.

Give this disc a spin and I guarantee you that by the time the third song rolls around you’ll have said that’s fucked up at least 10 times. Probably with 100 more times said before the end of the disc rolls around. Originality is hard to come by these days, so when an album like III comes around it stands out even more.

Unsanctum-Ignite The Skies
(Candelight/PHD, 2003)

If ever an album has been held back by a subpar production, this is it. Unsanctum play an energetic blend of death metal, black metal and hardcore, but everything is so buried in the production the bands sound is never full realized. I'm not sure if they wanted to go for a more black metal sounding production opposed to a more powerful sound. It's deftinitely raw and unpolished like a black metal album usually is, but it just doesn't fit the style of music. There is a lot going on within the music and the production sounds sloppy and is nowhere near as tight as it should be for this band. It's not even that the bands performance is sloppy either. There is just far too much reverb on the vocals, and the guitar sound peaks. The only decent sounding instrument is the drums, which comes through clearly, but doesn't really sound mixed with everything else. They stand out in a odd sort of way.

So I've bitched about the production a lot, but this band is amazing. The reason I'm bitching so much is because this could have been an amazing album. The songwriting is there, the performance is too. The production just doesn't let them shine and pound you like they should be.

If a combination of death metal, black metal and hardcore sounds appealing to you, check out this debut album from Unsanctum. Be warned though, it doesn't sound very good.