FREELOADER: THE UNRAVELLING’S 13 ARCANE HYMNS
Welcome to the latest edition of “Freeloader” in which we review albums that you don’t have to feel like a douche for downloading for free. Today Satan Rosenbloom checks out the debut album from The Unravelling.
When last we met with Calgary’s musical journeyman Steve Moore back in 2009, he was helming prog-metal band Inner Surge and goth/industrial creepsters Post Death Soundtrack. The former went tits up after releasing the respectable An Offering back in 2008; the latter continues its dark electronica unabated. Not much bound the two projects together other than Moore’s charismatic vocals, which evinced a heart-on-sleeve sincerity whether he was screaming or, more likely, crooning in his flexible baritone. His lyrics could be fiercely political or totally personal, and in either case Moore preferred ideas that were communicated straightforwardly and efficiently. Put simply, Moore is a working man’s thinking man’s metal singer.
Moore has met his aural complement in Gustavo De Beauville, the founder and main instrumentalist of The Unravelling. The Barbados expat is a fine guitarist and arranger, but his biggest talent is for synthesis. On The Unravelling’s debut album, 13 Arcane Hymns, Tool’s layered textures and Machine Head’s grooves are streamlined into free-flowing compositional nuggets. De Beauville keeps the transitions tight and the styles varied, and he and drummer Casey Lewis have the chops to handle the burbling atmosphere of “Becoming Chaos,” the straightforward aggression of “Where Will it End,” and the ethnic overtones of “In the Safe House” and “Arjuna.”
All the pieces are in place for a totally solid album, but 13 Arcane Hymns frustratingly doesn’t stick like it should. Partly it’s because the album’s mix doesn’t highlight its strengths. A song with as many moving parts as “Becoming Chaos” should have more definition, while the album’s most aggressive moments (like “Where Will It End?”) feel like they’re covered in moldering cotton candy, where they need to be wrapped in razorwire. It’s one of those rare metal records that could stand to be even slicker. Surprisingly enough, this album actually won an Alberta Metal Awards honor in the Best Album Production category. To quote the band’s Canadian countryman Leonard Cohen, “One of us cannot be wrong.”
The bigger issue is that The Unravelling don’t yet have the songwriting acumen to let their music soar. The band’s music is way more dynamic than your average metal band’s, and thus has the potential to blow us out of the water. Yet there’s this strange tentativeness to songs like “Open Skull” and “Disconnect-Connect,” as if the band’s setting itself up for a stunning chorus or massive breakdown that’ll bind De Beauville’s expert texturizing together, and they’re just not prepared to go there. 13 Arcane Hymns is a whole series of tantalizing intros, verses and pre-choruses, like thirteen difficult mountain trails that lack the spectacular views from the top that would make the climb worth it.
(2 1/2 out 5 horns up)
-SR
Download 13 Arcane Hymns for free here.
