This is a review I've wanted to write for many, many years, but I never found the time and courage to muster it up. The very nature of the album makes it extremely difficult review especially when I consider how much this release means to me personally. To be quite blunt, this album literally changed my entire perspective on music. Believe it or not, In a Flesh Aquarium was one of my first metal albums, and one of my first exposures to extreme metal. Stumbling upon this album was purely sheer luck. There was a link on an obscure forum (which is now dead of course) about 11-12 years ago that I happened to click. I was relatively new to metal at the time, but I had at least some decent knowledge and handle of the likes of Metallica and what not. But truly nothing could have prepared me for what would come next.
Some song called Chromatic Chimera from some band named Unexpect emerged from the speakers. It was innocent enough at first. The song leads you in with some haunting, but relatively tame piano melodies. A violin pops in to weave a new texture. Some clean guitar later appears. The double bass slowly rises into the mix. The song crescendos to the harmonized/opera-like opening line from the 3 different vocalists before descending into sheer madness. This was way too much for me to handle on my first listen. Truly, everything sounded completely nonsensical and aimless. After the song finished its run, there was the "what the fuck did I just listen to" reaction, and I did my best to forget about it.
But I couldn't. The strange, circus-like melodies constantly popped into my head. The weird, clucking bass playing defied everything I previously knew about the instrument. The chaotic feeling and structure of the entire work simply would not leave my brain. Naturally, I later went back that day and listened to the cursed song once again. It would be quite rash to say that Chromatic Chimera, at that time, completely clicked with me. But the one thing I can say for certain is that I wanted to hear the entire album.
I don't care if this comes across as pretentious or fanboy-esque, but Unexpect's In a Flesh Aquarium is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of album. There will probably never be another album like this made again (the third album is also a masterpiece, but it's not much like this one). You can safely classify In a Flesh Aquarium as an extreme metal album, but that's about as genre-conforming as they get. Yup, there are definitely lots of guitar riffs, double bass, and harsh vocals. Beyond that though? Every rule in the metal playbook is basically broken. Those are definitely metal riffs but have you ever heard any riffs that sound like that before? Have you ever heard a band weave together such varied and odd usage of vocals before? The answer is, of course, "no." And you won't find another parallel anywhere.
The aforementioned Chromatic Chimera is the mindblowing opener to the hour long journey of insanity. No two songs on the album are the same, but paradoxically the opener serves as a very good indicator of what to expect (hah). Overall, the songs are very complex and have weird structures. The music goes through ludicrous amounts of changes and moods. The mood is often fairly chaotic, but you often find many calmer and more introspective moments as well. It's certainly an extremely unpredictable album with technical ability through the roof.
One thing that bears mentioning is Unexpect's unusual instrumentation. The 7 piece unit features 2 male vocalists, 1 female vocalist, 2 guitarists, a 9-stringed bassist, a keyboardist, a violinist, and a drummer. This unusual setup isn't just for show. They make very thorough usage of the different elements at play here. The violin work is a welcome addition with the way it provides lots of atmosphere and counter melody. In normal scenarios, a 9 stringed bass would never be necessary, but Chaoth's insane basswork makes use of all sorts of weird tapping, crazy slapped lines, and basically everything you can think of. The usage of vocals is also another creative highlight. Both Syriak and Artagoth employ all sorts of grunts, growls, shrieks, some clean singing, and so on. Leïlindel can, of course, do the obligatory "beautiful female voice," but she's not at all limited that and also has very strong, theatric deliveries herself. All three voices often harmonize in strange ways with unpredictable mixtures of harsh and clean vocals.
Unexpect tends to get lumped in with other bands known for being "random", but I've always found that characterization unfair and inaccurate. For one, Unexpect's music is extremely technical and progressive. Their songs do have structures. It's just legitimately strange and hard to follow. Secondly, Unexpect is extremely riff-driven. That might silly, but often bands that combine and meld all sorts of influences together (like Unexpect) tend to have the non-metal things grab the spotlight. Despite all the tempo changes, time signature switch ups, and other weird stuff, it's still the riffs (minus a couple of songs) that drive and power everything. They're weird and complicated riffs but still very good, headbangable riffs.
As far as specific songs go, Chromatic Chimera is surely one of the best with the way it functions as a dynamic, punchy opener. The followup, Feasting Fools also stands out for the insane guitar attack and complex riff work. As the years have gone on, I've become to really appreciate the intricacy of Summoning Scenes and how it interweaves ethereal, introspective sections with triumphant, explosive outbursts. Another song worth highlighting is the closer, Psychic Jugglers with its weird mixture of symphonic theatrics and intense, complicated extreme metal. The only song that conjures up any semblance of a negative reaction from me is Silence_011010701. I admit that my appreciation for electronics in isolation is not very high. While I don't find anything particularly wrong with this song, I can't pretend that I find it genius or anything. For me, it serves as essentially an interlude that is perhaps a little too long, but nothing seriously damning.
One of the best measures of the quality of an album is its staying power. Sure you enjoy it a lot this particular month, but how often will you play it 6 months later or years later? Unexpect has never left my rotation. There are some times of relatively extended gaps between plays, but their music is still a regular and frequent member of my playlist after all these years. And really why wouldn't it be? What other band out there is anything like this? Unexpect plays a brand of extremely unique, intricately complicated, and totally insane metal. This is something that simply can't be matched.
Rating: 99/100