Cranial Incisored - Rebuild:The Unfinished Interpretation Of Irrational Behavior

(09 Jul 2011)

It's really irritating from time to time to mainly enjoy experimental, extreme music, whilst having a small army of fucks that I don't give about more mainstream music. It was to be expected that as I listen to more music, talking about the topic would become easier over time. Unfortunately, it seems to be the other way around. I end up feeling like an asshole whenever I have to include bands like Mindly Rotten or Crimson Massacre just to get a point across and people start saying "yeah" in a "What the hell are you talking about?" kind of way. A simple solution would obviously be to develop a taste for Amon Amarth and Lamb of God, to start going crazy over everything Sumerian Records ever craps out and, of course, start giving a shit about Metal Hammer. On the other hand, though, I can continue to drown my suffering with awesome music instead. As long as stuff like Rebuild:The Unfinished Interpretation of Irrational Behavior is made, I'll stick to the latter option.

Until after a bunch of listens, this debut sounds very amateurish. There is nothing to remember after a casual listen and what is immediately noticeable sounds pretty tasteless and out of place at first. It's just so everywhere at the same time and incoherent and confusing that while one has to appreciate the musicianship, it's like they're shoving all that musicianship at once up your left nostril. Actually, this brings up a very common aspect among the less accessible music, which is the way that what keeps a listener away from the music at first is what makes the listener come back for more afterwards.

For some reason, the listener will go back to be ear-raped again, and again, and again, and this insistence will pay off. The songs will start making sense (sort of), the memorable parts will start to be audible, and one will start to be able to understand what each part is supposed to be. The samples and interludes will still sound dated, but when compared to the timelessness of the sonic assault these guys make, they just had to sound that way for one not to lose their sanity. As for the general sound Cranial Incisored present here, if you like Behold... the Arctopus but wish they were a little less coherent and think they need a yelping dog with throat cancer doing vocals (which makes it practically perfect for me), this is for you.

I could say that I wish Rebuild:The Unfinished Interpretation of Irrational Behavior were more well-known, or that it's massively underrated, but I believe I would be lying. This is the kind of music where enjoyment comes from understanding and learning, and not from the experience itself. The listener has to cooperate. It requires patience and perseverance, rendering it unfit for the casual audiophile or the unprepared. The album holds such a fragile balance of experimentation and quality that it's easy for one to not even notice the "quality" part. Therefore, this is a release that should be best kept obscure for the bold music explorer to discover and enjoy.

Standout tracks

Artificial Intelligence
Nervousness
Psychoanalysis Therapy of Sybil Isabel Dorsett
Unexplored Mind Content
Experimental Thoughts As Shocker Therapy