“Magnetic Mountain” is apparently a reference to the Soviet city of Magnitogorsk, which was conceptualised and built from scratch in the 1950s. Inventiveness is the hallmark of this album. It’s so action-packed and full of ideas that it’s just breathtaking. The German band’s core style is Progressive Death Metal and I detected similarities throughout the album with Opeth in the galloping structures and drama, but to just say it’s like Opeth would be a vast and unfair oversimplification.
An album brimming with ideas can be a recipe for disorganisation, especially on an album of 12 tracks which aren’t especially long, but not here. The key is the non-stop groove-laden energy. It’s frantic and akin to being carried along on a kaleidoscopic wave. At times it’s machine-gun heavy, at others it’s reflective but its strength is that it stops for nothing and just flows. The sound on tracks like “Pre-“ are deliberately offbeat, then we get crackly gramophones and the untuned piano on “Contratto Senza Pieta”, sounding as if it’s being played in a gloomy and deserted war-time bar, but this isn’t gimmicky. It’s just part of the very strange and varied world that Unsoul are describing. No time is taken to pause for breath. “Way Less Space” has frenetic pace and film-score drama in its solos. The delivery made me think of Insomnium a little, but only a little because it’s just so much more exotic and original than anything you’ll normally hear. It slows right down later in the track but never loses its flow. It’s very cleverly done because although there are so many cameos and you just never know what to expect next, the punchy guitar and drum and Death vocals give it a powerful constancy. Yes, the music is straight out of the most majestic of Opeth song books but it comes with endless twists and turns. Out of the blue, “Rebel Prostitute” ends acoustically with the impenetrable sound of Eastern meditation, then “Swancorpse” is dominated by dark and sinister Prog Death majesty before intriguingly weaving another discreet Eastern sound in the mid-section. Each track is a feast of flavours. “Neverest” features spectacular acoustic and jazz-orientated sections as the deep keyboard runs menacingly through its heavy centre. It sounds as if the children have come out to play on “Dance Your Legs Off”. The definitive confirmation that the world is not normal comes on “I Loss”, on which we are told “Sometimes I miss the trains racing round my head, sometimes I miss the snakes winding round my bed ... I know they haven’t left”, but disturbing as this all is, it’s a fact and there’s no time to stop for breath here. Whichever way this album turns, the movement and the thinking never stop, which makes it both fascinating and delightful to listen to.
Although Unsoul have been together since 1995, this is their first full release. Well, it was well worth waiting for. I’ve never heard anything like it. The Progressive Death Metal they play is pulsating, invigorating and of the highest technical quality, but to mix in all the contrasting styles and ideas and do it so well is sheer genius. “Magnetic Mountain” is brilliant and I totally recommend it as an album to check out.
http://www.myspace.com/unsoulmetal
http://www.setalightrecords.com
