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Metal/Prog Metal CD Reviews

UnSun Clinic For Dolls Review by Gary Hill The whole female fronted epic metal sound has become a bit of a cliché. What at one time was novel has become rather trite. It’s hard to stand out in the field as being original and unique. I would say that Unsun fail to develop a unique identity in the genre. That said, they do deliver an album that works quite well despite the limitations of their chose musical style. While it comes close to feeling samey at a couple points, they always manage to change things up just enough to keep it interesting. It’s a good album in a musical style that makes it hard to excel. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2010 Volume 6 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

The Lost Way Coming in like some sort of epic metal, this powers out into seriously tasty territory. It’s modern, but rooted in power metal. The female vocals pull it more into the vein of groups like Epica, but this outfit has its own distinct sound.

Clinic For Dolls This pounds in with a very aggressive jam, but shifts out to a more mainstream metal sound for the choruses. It’s a good tune that has more of that epic metal built into it, but it’s not as strong as the opener was.

Time They definitely get it back online with this cut. It’s the strongest thing we’ve heard to this point. It’s not that they drastically change the formula, but the combination of killer metal, operatic epic sounds and other elements works extremely well here. The vocals are the strongest to this point on the album and the mix of metal guitars with keyboards and more prog like textures works much more effectively on this particular piece.

Mockers Much of this cut is more purely metal, but they bring some more prog-like sounds in at times. For my money the real strength of this tune is the vocal performance. That said, there’s also an especially tasty guitar solo.

Not Enough The musical arrangement here is a little generic. That said, the vocal performance really escalates this one. It’s the main thing that makes the track worthwhile.

The Last Tear A piano based ballad, this is evocative and pretty. It represents a nice piece of variety on a disc that was threatening to become redundant.

Home Although this is decidedly metal, it’s got quite a bit of classical built into the arrangement. It’s a highlight of the set and, while pretty typical of the genre, is a great tune. The guitar solo on this is especially effective.

I Ceased A piano based balladic approach opens this, but it shifts out into a metallic jam after that. It leans a bit too far towards trite and generic, but there are sections that help to redeem it. One of those is a killer technical metal instrumental movement later in the piece. The piano ballad approach is brought back later in the tune, too.

A Single Touch Much of this track is a bit too much in the same vein as the rest of the album. There is, though, a killer guitar solo section that at times makes one think a little of Queensryche. It really saves the number from being a throwaway.

Why Although this cut is much less intriguing taken by itself than a lot of the other music, it works very well because it represents a change from the norm. This is more based in a nu-metal sound. It’s aggressive and fairly raw compared to the more involved arrangements of a lot of the other songs here.

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