UnisonThanks to Rimbaud Records, based out of Ireland, for exposing me to some awesome Serbian progressive-hardcore. The first thing I immediately noticed when checking out the labels Myspace was that the label is named after Arthur Rimbaud, who was a 19th century French Poet. The second thing I noticed, how far the labels musical taste sprawled, listing everything from Vladimir Rezitsky to Henry Miller as influences.
Unison have been around for over a decade and are one of the most storied bands to come out of Serbia. They have released a number of EP's, 7" inches, two splits, a full length, and have appeared on a number of compilations. Their sound slightly resembles that of the Chicago noise scene at moments, but they seem to be largely influenced by the "Ebullition Sound" of bands like Unbroken, Tragedy, and Struggle. The 9 songs usually tip toe around the 1-2 minute mark. The band likes to incorporate brooding melodies while the bass plays some interesting lines played finger style and at a fast to mid paced tempo.
The lyrics are a touch poetic and a bit abstract and very personal. The song "The Cow" is a song about the vicious cycle of life: "...with rotten corpse the cow is feed. With dead cow was fed the man. Feeds the soil with rotten corpse.". Another interesting song "Expressions"; "...Nothing's changed but the fact that we've ran out words, expressions. And that change came a million years before.". My favorite song lyrically would be the perspective taken in "Tired Legs", which has one hell of a closing line; "Sun is too big for the Earth. Sunshine is too strong for man, who got used to walk(ing) in the dark".
I really loved the way the instruments were recorded. The bass tone is phenomenal, it has a real deep warm sound that uses the ideal amount of treble. The guitar has just enough overdrive with good clarity, allowing every note to ring out. The drums sound full, the snare has an ideal pop, and a good dense kick tone. My main problem with the recording were the vocals, they were just too low in the mix, which is a shame because his voice sounded good.
Very simple glossy layout, but it works for me. The front of the record sleeve has an upside down notepad with some random equations scribbled. Surrounding the notepad is a black and yellow line pattern, resembling what you would see on the road. In the bottom right hand corner is the band logo with the album title. The back has a real cool black and white silhouette live shot of the band, the singers face is erupting with a white light. The track listing is in the top right hand corner and printed in gold. What record is complete without an insert; high quality black gloss with the credits, thank you's, and lyrics printed on gold. Very snazzy. The record comes on high quality black vinyl; there are some etchings on the record saying "Please remove me from the hardcore scene" on side A and "Ye Woof Woof" on side B. I found it a little odd but little things like that make a record a little more enjoyable.
Rating: 4/5
Sections Worthy of Replay: Stillness Means That Nothing Moves and The Sum
Synopsis: The Sum was an unexpected treat and again I would like to thank the label for getting this in my hands. This was also released in CD format on Hako Records in Serbia, I do believe a US label may be releasing this as well as other labels from around the globe. If you enjoy bands from Ebullition Records I would suggest for you to check this out. Check out the links below, you will not be disappointed. http://www.myspace.com/rimbaud records and http://www.myspace.com/unison011