Eventuality

Alarum | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 16, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Willowtip Records
• ASIN: B0006A9GHM
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #425,645 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Technically spellbinding and progressive death/thrash/jazz metal fusion, November 25, 2005

By 

Nicholas Adam Chupka "Metalhead" (Derwood, MD) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eventuality (Audio CD)

While nu-metal, melodic death, and metalcore continue to bury all the credible elements of metal, I cannot help being enthusiastic and optimistic because of the continual emergence of free-thinking and hard-working bands who reinvent what it means to be dexterous and innovative.

And what other genre is so perfectly and completely defined by these two elements, than jazz?

With Eventuality, Alarum joins the ranks of Atheist, Ephel Duath, Psyopus, Aghora, Spiral Architect, and a crop of other classic and more contemporary bands, in demonstrating why metal may be the only mainstream genre which consistently deconstructs preconceptions about what music is.

What plagues some of these technical bands, though, is what seems to be a forced purpose. The previously mentioned bands have made names for themselves because the progressions of their songs seem natural, and a a true sum of their parts' influences and personalities.

Eventuality possesses this exact kind of character. Isolated and blended moments of death, grind, thrash, jazz, prog-rock, prog-metal, power metal, hard rock, ambient, and many other styles never suffer from oil and water syndrome, because Alarum, as experimental as its nature may be, has a clear sense of purpose.

So just as the musical influences are broad in scope, so to are the ways in which the band executes the songs. As you would expect, there are stylistic and time changes aplenty, but the band members weave between technically complex runs, groovier and more simplistic chord progressions, bass-led, guitar-led, keyboard-led moments, inhumanly fast soloing, discriminately sparse, yet melodic soloing, and the list goes on forever.

It is funny how innovation has, and continues to run life here on earth, yet it seems popular art forms, especially music, are so pathetically static, at least in the manifestations most accessible to the masses. Luckily for us metalheads, even within the company of an unprecedented number of diluting bands, the metal genre shows no signs of completely succumbing to mediocrity. Combining historically complex musical styles with the talent and ability to pull it off, Alarum ensures that future generations of metalheads will not have to live in a world of MeTalV.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Masterful jazz metal fusion, December 12, 2004

By 

phobos (Berkeley, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eventuality (Audio CD)

The label's press release for this album describes it as the next Cynic "Focus," which couldn't be a more apt comparison, amazingly enough. Another band that inevitably comes to mind is Spiral Architect. I'm not sure if this album takes things any further than Cynic did over ten years ago, and it doesn't seem to have the monumental complexity of Spiral Architect, but it's certainly one impressive slab of jazz-infused metal. Rarely is there even a hint of anything approaching pure metal-- every moment is drenched in jazz. The more metallic parts sound a lot like Death and usually occur along with the vocals, which alternate between nice clean singing and raspy croaking something like Chuck Schuldiner on "Symbolic" or the vocalist from Believer. These parts are usually a little more straightforward than the rest, which works well. Vocalists in a lot of technical metal bands end up sounding out of place and a little ridiculous, trying to keep up with the music, but Alarum avoids this problem. Jazzy guitar solos are jammed into every possible place-- essentially at any moment without vocals. I usually find solos a little boring in metal, but the ones on here are all excellent. My favorite parts, as with Cynic, are the sections of pure jazz. The production, of course, is amazingly clear. My only complaint, and it's a minor one, is that the material on here is just a little too clean and smooth to provide any surprises--I would have preferred a few more rough edges and a little more weirdness-- but anyone who has enjoyed any of the projects that the two Sean's from Cynic have been involved in (Aghora, Gordion Knot, etc.) will love this. The 20 minutes of dead silence in the last song is just plain annoying, however-- I hate silly contrivances of that kind.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All Hail the New Jazz Metal Kings!, March 1, 2006

By 

Sunshine the Werewolf (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eventuality (Audio CD)

ALARUM - Eventuality
-
For anyone else feeling the void left from the Jazz, Tech-Metal greats such as Death, Cynic and Atheist... I say with confidence, this is Your Band! Australia's Alarum has pushed the envelope as hard as any of the previously mentioned bands with there debut Eventuality. What gives them their edge is they also add a perfect texture of melody.
DIVERSITY PEOPLE! It is Important! Songs like `Receiver' and `Remote Viewing' have these beautiful, fulfilling guitar melodies... Whereas `Inertial Grind' is Old School Speed/Death Metal fused with a catchy chorus.

Musically, these guys are pretty much raising the bar for `Talent'. In fact I find it difficult to remember such musically ability unleashed on a debut album... (Well, maybe DEP's Calculating Infinity...) The Guitar work is absolutely fantastic... some of the jazziest, craziest and downright kick ass solos I've heard. The Bass work is often quite busy as well... seldom does he perform just a simple backdrop to the Guitars usually he is going just as balls out as they are. Also he handles the Vocals which are good but not yet great.... I feel with a little voice instruction has tons of potential. His `Metal' voice is reminiscent of the late Chuck Schindler and his softer voice often uses some effects to blend it into the music. Last but certainly not least, the Drumming is phenomenal, switching from one complex beat to the next... with styles ranging from Jazz and Rock to Metal and Grind.

All I can say is if you enjoy Complex Jazz Inspired Technical Metal (That was a mouthful...) You owe it to yourself to checkout this bands Stunning Debut.

Favorite Songs: Receiver, Woven Imbalance, Remote Viewing and Inertial Grind
-5 Stars


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