The Experimental Minds of Instability to Shock Your Therapy System

Sometimes it's kind of hard to imagine that Indonesia is an actual country containing people with functioning minds/brains and free will, instead of just thinking that it's a collection of several different isles that house NPCs, each programmed with a distinct code of AI that causes the entire nation to perform a few very specific tasks, which are as follows: create clove cigars, harvest kratom and (lastly) form the most generic brutal death metal bands which all sound exactly the same to the point where most people outside their home town will never care about them (sans some very rare exceptions such as Jasad and Sensor Motorik). With that said, it's a big surprise that such an innovative and brilliant band with the name of Cranial Incisored hails from one of the biggest cities found within Java.

To describe the musical style of this band would be a task as awkward and unorthodox as their own music sounds. Think if like if Origin decided to make an album featuring their best attempts at free jazz, this is essentially what the result would be. It's worth mentioning Cranial Incisored is almost (if not just as) talented as Origin is, so it's satisfying to know this band isn't as underrated as they should be as there's been a fair amount of praise for them/their music in the last two decades. Considering there's evidence to support that some longtime death metal guys that were aware of this band even before social media become mainstream, it's reassuring to note that this group is are one of those bands that found their own exposure and fanbase merely for creating quality ass material and not relying on marketing like a lot of the oversaturated 'death metal market' is today. But enough talking about that for now, there's a lot more worth mentioning about this EP.

Cranial Incisored operate as a perpetually technical unit but not in the same way a band like Necrophagist or Beneath the Massacre is. It's difficult to describe what the band definitively sounds like, but it can be stated that they have such an ungodly talented way at playing their instruments coupled with their distinct avant-garde style that, despite it is undoubtedly tech death, it's hard to truly compare them to any actual tech death band. This EP sounds more like something to the liking of what free jazz on death metal guitar would sound like. The music presented on The Experimental Minds of Instability to Shock Your Therapy System is just so odd, but also so fast and frantic, it ends up being difficult for the unprepared ear to really follow along with all that's going on during your first time listening to any of these songs. Admittedly the production holds some of the band aback here, as the guitar lines aren't locked in and the bass isn't as clear in the mix as it is on their later records, but taking in the entire release for what it is proves a really fulfilling experience if you're not just picking apart the instruments from another.

The four men who take part on this are indeed very talented and musically inept (besides maybe the vocalist who is just okay at best). While these songs are written very well, the production here might turn some away, but there is good news for people who might have that complaint: all songs available on this EP were redone for the full-length. So you're probably asking me at this point "why review the band's under-produced EP then if there's a superior more professionally made full-length with this same sound and style?" well there's a few reasons for that. First reason why is because I kind of like this EP more, mostly for the vocals, the inhaled gutturals performed here sound more fitting to the band's style than the raspy screamy style of the vocalist who succeeded this guy does on their debut album. Second reason is the production, while not as 'good' as the sound perfected on Rebuild: The Unfinished Interpretation of Irrational Behavior, it still sounds really great to me in the fact that it's so organic and proves how experienced of musicians these guys are when you hear their music with almost no studio improvements added. Just ignore the fact that a lot of the band sounds a bit more loose here and sloppy than on their later releases, and there's a lot to like on this short EP.