UNEVEN STRUCTURE: “8” (Re-recorded)

 Album Reviews, SHORT BUT SWEET  4 Responses »
Jun 172013
 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli reviews a re-recorded EP by the French band Uneven Structure.)

2013 marks the return of “that word” (THALL). First we had the Means End debut, we have a new Vildhjarta EP on the way, and as of right now we have a new (and old) offering from Uneven Structure. I wrote a short review and hosted a download of the original version of Uneven Structure’s first EP known as 8, a twenty-plus-minute song, Meshuggah Catch-33 style, that presented a much different band than what they turned into on their debut Februus. Re-recording 8 was probably the best thing Uneven Structure could’ve done, in terms of offering people something until the next album is finished.

8 was a piece of work that deserved a new makeover. It was a great piece, but it had a sub-par production and it was kind of an oddity that the vocalist was none other than one of Vildhjarta’s two. Now we get 8 re-recorded with a new mix, vocalist Matthieu Romarin working his vocal magic, and the music enhanced with the lush ambience this band has become known for in the backdrop of what is otherwise still the heaviest thing they’ve written.

What the re-recording of 8 really does in the end is solidify it as a true Uneven Structure work rather than an outlier that merely served as a stepping stone for the band. The more aggressive, slightly industrial harshness is still prevalent, but by mixing in the atmosphere and ambience of their current sound, the band have turned it into a whole new beast. As a matter of fact it’s even more overwhelming than it was before. Even with Matthieu Romarin’s clean vocal incorporations amidst his zen-focused roaring, the music has a much darker undertone than anything on Februus did, adding also a bit of eeriness or unease to the mood. Continue reading »

UNEVEN STRUCTURE AND VILDHJARTA: “FEBRUUS” AND “MÅSSTADEN”

 Album Reviews  10 Responses »
Jan 312012
 

(TheMadIsraeli is on a mission to review or re-review the 2011 albums that were his favorites.)

Alright.  Time for me to return to reviewing or revisiting my top 15 albums of 2011, which I previously listed on this site.  These won’t be as long as my normal reviews (generally half as long), so unless an album requires a longer piece, I’ll be doing these two at a time.  Today’s subjects are the yin and yang, the chaos and order, the good and evil of THALL.

Uneven Structure and Vildhjarta.  Februus and Måsstaden. First:

“So, I’m not going to dance around the verdict on this album: This thing is the shit.  Listening is like achieving enlightenment through sound, an aural ascension into nirvana, the equivalent of finding true inner peace through heavy-as-fuck, syncopated, gain-soaked djent riffs drenched in waterfalls of absolutely gorgeous ambience with an odd oriental color.” Continue reading »

DAT THALL

 Album Reviews  6 Responses »
Jan 242012
 

(TheMadIsraeli has a few choice words to offer about an earlier EP by Uneven Structure (France), whose 2011 album we raved about last year, plus a free download of the EP.)

The new and current albums I’ll be reviewing next aren’t scheduled for release until February, so in the meantime I’ll be trying to produce the best “non-current” content I can.  I think you’ll find that this one here is a winner.

I reviewed Uneven Structures’ debut full-length Februus last year (here), hailing it as one of the best releases of the year and ultimately including it on my list of the top 15 albums of 2012 (expect a re-review of that one soon).  In my opinion, their wall of melody, gain, and ambient soundscapes all meshed into one of the most consuming sounds ever made, and I would wager we will see them becoming major players within the modern metal scene over the next few years.

They are also the only other band in on Vildhjarta’s THALL gimmick.

That is totally relevant to this article.  Why you might ask?

Uneven Structure’s current vocalist is Matthieu Romarin, but this wasn’t always the case.  When the EP I’m reviewing today — called 8 — was recorded, it featured a totally different Uneven Structure, including a different vocalist — Daniel Adel of Vildhjarta (who is the higher-pitched of their two vocalists). Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: UNEVEN STRUCTURE

 Interviews  2 Responses »
Nov 262011
 

(Not long ago, TheMadIsraeli gave us a glowing review of Februus, the new album on Basick Records from French/Swedish band Uneven Structure.  He now follows that with this interview of Uneven Structure’s Igor Omodei.)

So let’s cut right to the chase.  “Februus” is the fucking shit.  Why?

Because of way too much spare time and a slight pinch of monomania. Nah really, is it this worthy?

The album was quite an ambitious undertaking.  What made you all decide to write what is essentially a 55 minute epic of a song?  Was it intentional or did it simply happen that way?

We’ve always loved concept albums! The way you can push a mood into these can be much stronger than in regular albums. So yes, it was intentional. We wanted this kind of feeling that you’re into one piece, each track relating to each other with that latent tension building up through the whole album.

What caused your immense shift in sound from the “8” EP?  A very Meshuggah-ish sound to ambidjent is quite a leap.

At the time “8” was released,  we already had a first version of “Februus” written but it was not up to our expectations. We needed much more time to deal with the relationship between rhythm and ambiences to make it work the way we wanted it to work. So we decided to take a couple of riffs and songs out of it, craft it in a Meshuggah-ish way of doing things and released it that way. It was more of a test to see if our writing tools actually worked on a finished song.  (more after the jump . . .) Continue reading »

UNEVEN STRUCTURE: “FEBRUUS”

 Album Reviews  11 Responses »
Oct 312011
 

(Today, Basick Records releases the eagerly anticipated debut album, Februus, by French band Uneven Structure, and NCS writer TheMadIsraeli provides this review.)

I don’t know how a lot of you NCS readers feel about this whole djent movement/genre thing, but I definitely understand the elitist attitude toward it.  Djent is everywhere now; it has crept its way into a shit-ton of modern-minded metal, whether the music really has anything to do with djent or not.  It has spawned so many unoriginal, uninteresting bands in its short life span that it’s insulting.  Why do we really need anyone besides Meshuggah for this shit?

That’s a good question, and one I find myself constantly revisiting as I analyze what is happening in metal. Only two djent albums have touched me since the movement began establishing the modern foothold it now has: TesseracT’s One and Periphery’s self-titled debut.  These are good albums to be sure but, could I live without them?  Most definitely.

Most of my favorite djent has been the product of bands who only incorporated it into something else, rather than totally embracing it — Xerath, Threat Signal, Textures, and CiLiCe. These are bands who made the mathy riffing, the ambience, and the polyrhythmic, syncopated grooves interesting without making me wish I could just listen to Meshuggah instead.  So where the fuck am I going with this exactly?

Uneven Structure. Continue reading »

RANDOM MUSIC TIME

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Oct 062011
 

(In this post, NCS writer TheMadIsraeli has compiled short introductions to four bands: Uneven Structures, Deus Invictus, Azrath-11, and By Night.)

It’s random music time again. Hope you all have been well. I got reviews coming down the pipe of some nice, rather unknown, shit. I’ll even be giving you a taste of some of it in this post.

Uneven Structure is an ambidjent band hailing from both France and Sweden, including ex-Vildjharta vocalist Matthieu Romarin (if you’ve heard the song “Shiver”, you know who this is). They’ve been working on their very ambitious debut Februus for some time now. It’s a two-disc long concept album with three 20-minute epics to close it out. I’ve been excited just from the snippets, but now they’ve finally unleashed the first taste of their debut.

The album’s opener “Awaken” employs massive revolving-door grooves, dreamy clean, almost-oriental-tinged ambient textures, and an epic outro that builds up to an explosion, only to be cut off before the explosion happens. It’s a nice, and fucking unfair, way to tease you for the album. Hopefully you’ll dig this like I do. The last two minutes or so of this song are simply awe-inducing to me.  Februus will be released on October 31 by Basick Records. Expect to see a review of this album in a couple of weeks once I get my promo around the 14th. (the song is right after the jump) Continue reading »