HUNAB
KU
– The Gaze Inward
Black
Sheep Records, 2007
Review
by S J Holetz
This week, I was pointed in the direction of Seattle
experi-metal purveyors Hunab Ku
[MySpace] and their
recent debut album The
Gaze Inward. I had heard
the band compared favorably style-wise to other avant acts such
as Dillinger Escape Plan and personal favorites Cephalic Carnage, so I was looking
forward to giving this disc a spin.
The album kicks off with
“houdini’s achilles heel”, which chitters and rages with insane glee
before dissolving into
molten puddle of sound, an excellent opener.
synthetic locusts”, which could have been cribbed directly from the
worst of Skinny Puppy’s
“murmers of asmodai” mixes things
up, a grab bag of driving metal and jazzy interlude which proves
interesting, if
not compelling.
my hopes for the band to metallicize that wheezing melody never came to
fruition.
This was remedied however in the
next track, arguably the CDs best. The brilliantly titled “pecking out
my stained
glass eyes” finally gets down to some professional grade crunch after a
three song hiatus, attaining a nimble yet heavy groove.
Next up: “midnight assassin”, which is every bit as cool as the title
would indicate, and a fine example Hunab Ku’s
ability to extend their sonic pallete with sound effects and
electronics, using them to accent a monstrous industrial riff.
“teetering on the edge of
nothingness” provides a properly metallic closing bookend to the
proceedings, alternating
delicate instrumental constructions with blizzards of crushing
distortion, definitely a strong finish.
Overall, the strength of this
brief outing are the vocals, which are truly inventive, covering a
wider range of screams,
shrieks, growls, roars, croons, moans, whispers and gurgles than most
of their contemporaries. The CD clocks in at a brisk
25 minutes or so, with several of the songs under 2, so I was really
left wanting to hear the band expand even further on some of
the musical canvases contained herein. While that may sound like a
criticism, I think it's a great sign for the future, as
I was definitely left wanting more from this incredibly creative group.
For these reasons, The
Gaze Inward is well worth a listen.
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