SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM — Of Natural History (review)

SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM — Of Natural History album cover Album · 2004 · Avant-garde Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Phonebook Eater
7/10

"Of Natural History" sounds like it was written by monsters.

Wow, what an album. It is classified as Avant Prog only because it's "Weird", but really it's unclassifiable. It is so diverse from all the rest of today's music that it really makes you believe that this band is formed by aliens. I picked up this album, together with "In Glorious Times", because I thought I needed to learn something more about RIO. Indeed, "Of Natural History" has taught me quite a lot.

The style is very unique, like I said: avant garde united with metal ,even some growls( they're quite frequent in the album) so it's probably not a really accessible album. We also find some jazz, classical, and a genre that really isn't definable. We also find some sounds and noises, that gives more impact to the album.

Some songs are good, some great, some weirder, some less. The first part of the album is very original, but more melodic and less creepy than the second part. In fact, in this part there is even more experimentation, and the songs are all much more bizarre and puzzling. Especially "BabyDoctor", fourteen minutes of some of the finest avant garde around today. Let's not forget, in the first part, "Phthisis", a very interesting song, so full of emotion that it blows my mind. "FC" is another avant garde masterpiece, full of excellent and unforgettable moments.

I mut say I initially didn't like this album, because I considered it a little too absurd and out of control; plus, I hated the growl parts (I usually like black or death metal), and my favorite moments were a few.

This album, after a while, grew up on me. If you're a RIO or an Avant-Garde Metal fan, consumer, you will for sure appreciate this piece of music.
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