Signals from the Mystiverse

Gentry Lord is one of the strangest projects I've heard within the overall traditional metal "sphere" - that is, without really delving into progressive metal or adding other outside genre influences. I can't vouch for whether this sole EP Signals from the Mystiverse was actually fueled by drugs, but it sure as hell sounds like it was. And not the fun kind either - most of this release sounds like a nightmarishly bad trip, albeit in goofy and theatrical fashion, knowing not to take itself too seriously to keep things fun and enjoyable. The only point of reference I can think of here is like if the guys from Mr. Bungle decided to use NWOBHM as their starting point instead of early death metal. This is the one-man project of Jori von Meriläinen, and he clearly just wanted to make this sound as out there as possible, making Demon Bitch sound polished and orthodox by comparison. There's synths that make it feel like an alien carnival, and some of the screeches and howls of pain evoke the demonic soundscapes of something like Hell (UK).

That said, there are still some cool ideas underneath, though the songs here certainly feel more like found footage of someone that took a shitload of PCP, jumped off a building trying to fly, and subsequently went to hell, than they do your traditional verse/chorus/verse/chorus affairs. There are riffs and melodies though, and there's enough going on overall to make it feel like a fully fleshed-out experience rather than just a joke project. It certainly won't attract those who insist on listening to more conventional music, but those with an open mind and an interest in mixing the hellish theatricality of early Emperor with some campy, B-movie inspired heavy metal a la Seasons of the Wolf. Jori is certainly a competent musician, and while his vocal performance may not be something I could recommend on a technical level, he's certainly not trying to be Geoff Tate here. In fact, he really goes for an even semi-traditional vocal performance, mostly consisting of wails and screams that have more in common with King Diamond than anything resembling your standard shrieker.

While it's definitely not catchy, with songs tending to run together in that I don't even really notice where one ends and the next begins, as a full package this is quite entertaining, full of ingenuitive ideas and never feels (at least to me) like it's being gimmicky just for the sake of doing it or like Jori is just trying to show off one specific thing. The multiple layers of bizarro nightmare soundscape are always there, so it does at least offer a full package in that regard, and at times there's even as much as two dueling guitars, crazy synths, a bass guitar doing its own thing, unorthodox drumming, and multiple tracks of Jori screaming and wailing, all at once. It may be too much for some, and it's not something I want to listen to all the time, but it's quite the experience when I want something out of the box, and over 10 years after its release it's something I still remember and get an itch for once in awhile. If you're a fan of avant-garde music or metal that feels more like a soundscape than a regular album, I'd be surprised if you didn't find something to put a smile on your face in this little release.