Album Review: Octaveleven – This Hyperlink

This music is as bizarre and moving as a delirious fever dream.  Octaveleven is multilayered, very experimental and progressive, with spacey keyboards that might be more comfortable in an Atari game. The best songs had the  dissonant urgency and impatience of a boss battle, with musical tension mirroring a climactic showdown.  In the haystack of disharmony, you occasionally find a needle of melody. Some of the refrains are catchy despite themselves, and the percussion anchors the flighty, spaced out riffs.

This album is very entertaining and enjoyable, but its length is modest and there is nary a party anthem to be found. This is more like Meshuggah, whose syncopated beats, unusual time signatures, and other rhythmic techniques are tools to experiment with music. This results in something that sounds different and interesting, but not necessarily something that will get stuck in your head or become your new favorite song. Regardless, this an intriguing deviation from the beaten path.

I’m no stranger to madness, and I can recognize a fellow madman when I hear music this weird. Perhaps he knows the rules of western music theory and is deliberately trying to break them (see: Arnold Schoenberg), or this music is so impulsive that it breaks them inadvertently. The impulsive candor of improvisational jazz, meshed with the heavy synth sounds of electronica, make this a very eccentric album, but not very metal.

Octaveleven is going to freak you out, regardless of your musical taste or favorite genres. You can find them on Reverbnation, Bandcamp, and Soundcloud. Although I’m not quite sure what I just listened to, I’m pretty sure I liked it.  Three stars out of five!