Metal innovators Candiria are amongst the
first to have massively unleashed thick doses of metal along with a
bunch of several diverse genres, taking back the inheritance given by
Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys, Voivod, Bad Brains,
Suicidal Tendencies, Living Colour, Bad Brains, and the likes, tho in
a much heavier direction than the previous cited bands, kinda like Mr.
Bungle or Naked City, even if they play different, and that's why I
consider them as an incredible secret to the mainstream metal world.
Actually, under the monicker of Candiria who recorded this double CD
are a great deal of musicians, graphics, rappers, poets, filmamakers,
record producers, web designers and performance artists making it seem
like a rap band where the known important musicians are 3 or 4, while
the whole 'family' is constituted by many more; for example the 1st
disc includes songs from the long outta print 2nd LP "Beyond
Reasonable Doubt", gifted by a new remixing, remastering, bass
parts by ex-Merauder Michael MacIvor, new additional guitar parts by
John LaMacchia and new supplementary vocal parts by Carley Coma.
The C.O.M.A. Imprints is the vehicle for 360° Candiria's creativeness
(C.O.M.A. stands for 'Children of Mental Awareness'), and the alliance
with Lakeshore Entertainment and its first class record and film divisions
provides the C.O.M.A. Imprint a unique position in the indie record
world. To name a few of the huge results achieved, a Candiria's song
recently appeared in the climactic scene of Lakeshore Picture's feature
film "The Mothman Prophecies" with Richard 'fucking'
Gere!; moreover, MTV news lately showed a 4 minutes' "You Hear
it First" segment, "Without Water"'s video
has been added to the hard rock playlists of MTV2 and Much Music, lots
of enthusiatic reviews were published by Kerrang, Rolling Stone, La
Weekly, and Candiria was a highlight of Asia's first metal festival,
the Beast Feast in Yokohama (Japan), sharing the stage with Pantera,
Slayer, Sepultura and over 30 other big bands.
As to the music, the 1st CD starts with the bizarre metal with rap vocals
of "Paradigma Shift"(splitted in 6 chapters), which
early Voivod-like distorsions are set on along with angry or psycho
vocals, not far from murder metallers Macabre's; then you have jazz
passages, others absolutely outa mind, more than No Means No/Hanson
Brothers; death vocals, nu metal structures and that's only the first
track!!!
"Year 1" presents the same characteristics of the previous
song, but also has some death metal riffs, pissed off Hardcore vocals,
deign of the best Dillinger Escape Plan ( band they know quite well
after the 2002 U.K. and rest of Europe tour along with Raging Speedhorn
and Clutch too), under which we hear piano phrasings. "Peel
This Strip and Fold Here" is a powerful instrumental jazz composition
reminding the (not only Italian) 70's prog rock geniuses, after which
razorblade guitars are innested, before the track becomes jazz again
and finally a little space rock.
"Faction" is not only tight hardcore/metal; it contains
so many time changes and manifoldnesses that it'd be wrong and boring
to mention them all. Let me just tell you that jazz recurs again here
later and the voice here is, to put it lightly, STUNNING!
You'll find energetic rap and metal in "Bring the Pain/Multiple
Incisions", a cover version of a song origianlly written and
performed by Prince Rakeem "RZA", glued to a 2nd song composed
by Candiria for this occasion. "Riding the Spiral"
is the intro to "Tribes", an irresistible blend of
tribal percussions, crushing guitars and vicious vocals. Sepultura should
dig it very much. In the end the percussions slow down and the vocals
become hip hop before some lonely goodbye-waving trumpets. Similarly
in "Primary Obstacles" (aggressive metal, jazz intermezzoes,
trumpets and rap vocals), while "Molecular Dialect"
is simply indecipherable and impossible to describe, followed by "Divided",
a sorta modern metal onslaught in the vein of Stuck Mojo melted with
jazzy elements. Didgeridoos stand out in "R-Evolutione-R",
before - after 2 minutes - the drums come out together with a melodic
guitar, leading us to the moment in which the keyboards become protagonists
in a delicate way; finally, the closure is on the notes of a solist
guitar.
The 2nd CD features 6 songs excerpted by compilations or CD's:
"Blue Suede Timbs" is by Carley Coma, I'd define it
noisy rap, just to give an idea. Comes from the "Coma New York
- Lyrical Assassination- Volume 1" compilation.
"Collective Unconscious" is from John LaMacchia's "The
Moons Project": synth-based music: from the classic EBM imprint
to trip hop, lounge, all top-notch; in the end there's also room for
nice bass lines. Another track from the same CD is "Hypnotic
Oceans", pleasant too but more commercial than the other song.
"That Which Survives" and "Richard Dreyfuss"
are from the "Ghosts of the Canal" CD, so check out
the corresponding review.
Kenneth Schalk presents us his "Let the Mic Go" from
the "Coma New York - Lyrical Assassination- Volume 1"
compilation as well; here you get some rap again with diverse bases,
dinamic and fresh.
Different from Mr. Bungle, weirder and more lunatic than Voivod, more
involving and daring than Melvins, proud of an EXCEPTIONAL production
and a detailed cool artwork, the world has to stand a new bombastic
blow by these avantgarde musicians destined to enthrone with Naked City
and stay there long. And don't you try to call it a CULT band only,
Candiria are pioneers and music heroes; they could play nu metal or
latest Metallica metal/rock, but, no way! It's not they're allergic
to money, it's just that they prefer to gain popularity and lasting
success without renouncing their integrity. I really don't know what
more one can ask of Candiria.
MARKUS GANZHERRLICH - 19/03/03
Contacts:
www.candiria.com
www.lakeshore-records.com
