Unexpect, seemingly out of nowhere, shocked the metal world with their 2006 release of In a Flesh Aquarium. That album was truly challenging and bizarre in every sense of the word. However, its insanity was actually foreshadowed right here on this little EP. Released 4 years after the debut album, _We Invaders represents the middle ground between the more-grounded-but-still-weird debut album and the sheer madness of the followup. Even though this release is dwarfed by the band's full length albums, I still consider it an essential work for any Unexpect fan and any fan of weird metal in general.
One thing that's definitely improved here is the lineup. For female vocals, Elda from the debut album, Utopia, is replaced by Leïlindel. While Elda was good before, her replacement has a much more versatile and capable voice. Another obvious upgrade is the introduction of Chaoth on bass. This is before he started playing the 9-stringed monstrosity, so the bass performance isn't quite as impressive as later work, but it's still more noteworthy than the previous album. The rest of the lineup is the "traditional" Unexpect instrumentation. You have the dueling, technical guitar work. There's the crazy and impressive drumming in the back. There's the weird usage of 3 different vocalists (two mostly harsh males and one female). Oh yeah and don't forget the violin and keyboard stuff either.
The opener, Novaë, shares elements with the symphonic progressive extreme metal style of the debut, but it definitely marches strongly into new territories. The band experiments more with some electronic elements and chaotic song structures. Lots of weirder/mind-bending sections find their way in this work. The next song, Rooted Shadows, easily walks away as the strangest of the bunch. Bizarre electronics, extreme soft/loud contrasts, awesome folkish violin breaks, and a lack of any sort of traditional song structure put this one very firmly in the "avant-garde" and "what the hell is going on here" territory. In Velvet Coffins We Slept from Utopia is completely re-recorded and makes a reappearance here. It's not terribly different than the original aside from some minor tempo differences, but it's still an excellent song that I always greatly enjoy. Chromatic Chimera is a short, solo piano piece that serves as a curious look into the template of the opening song that would appear again on the second album. You can hear the origin of many ideas that get fully fleshed out later in the full, band version.
Unexpect seems to be a pretty polarizing band in general. There's very much a "you either love it or hate it" reaction with them. Obviously, I'm very much in the "love it" camp, but much of the criticism heaped at them I've always thought was unfair. People have accused them of being "random", "incoherent", and similar things along those lines. Unexpect's songs do have structures and are composed very meticulously. It's just that the songwriting is almost totally removed from anything considered traditional or normal. Yeah sure, their music is still tonal, but other than that, it's bona fide avant-garde metal. No mater how you feel about them, the one thing everyone concedes about Unexpect is that they are totally original and unique. I fell in love with their stuff over 10 years ago, and throughout all this time, I've never found another band that sounded anything like them nor have their albums ever left my rotation. The band was just that special.
Rating: 97/100