Unmoored - Kingdoms of Greed (2000)

If the cover to Unmoored's sophomore album Kingdoms of Greed seems familiar to you, that's because it's an inversion of Seagrave's cover for the Pestilence compilation Mind Reflections, which had already come out some years before. Sort of a strange choice, but there's at least an alternate, simpler cover, since someone else obviously made the connection. As for the music itself, it's a quite enormous step above Cimmerian in quality, but that step comes at the expense of an almost complete shift in tone and style to an aggressive strain of melodic death metal which is more At the Gates than a sodden impression of Entombed death & roll with melodies and Gothic bits sprinkled over the frosting.

Kingdoms of Greed comes firing out of the gates after a brief Poltergeist sample, with a wall of grinding force called "Feral Blaze". This essentially sounds like Slaughter of the Soul-era At the Gates material with a slightly grinding edge to it, and less memorable riffs. Still, it decimates the entire debut album in about 3.5 minutes, and it's followed by the even more impressive, scathing "Tellurian Crown", which carves out glorious melodies and technical, furious guitars into a grim mountain of force. Some of the clean vocals and rock grooves do creep their way back into this, but they're plotted out better in the song. "Self-Invoked" returns to the sheer ass-kicking of the first track, and "Torchbearer" even commits elements of melodic black metal to an ambitions 7 minutes which never really feels boring. "Milestone" and "Thrown Off the Scent" are both tight melodic death tunes, and there are also a pair of interesting breaks in the action, the tonal, progressive ballad "Final State Part II" which sounds like a poor man's Queensryche, and the more impressive, folksy medieval grace of "In the Dark Midst of Winter".

Christian Ävestam proves here that's he's so stuffed with talent that it's flowing out his ears, and even if Kingdoms of Greed is not perfect, and not Unmoored's finest hour, that extra effort is appreciated here. Some will probably argue that he was just jumping on the bandwagon of At the Gates, Eucharist and so forth, but clearly there is still enough of the personality he wanted to project upon the debut album Cimmerian, only here it's done right. I could skip the first of the ballad pieces, and a few of the songs don't measure up to others, but in all, this is an effective and cohesive assault of aggressive death that creates an immediate 180 in potential, and might thrill any who seek out the more obscure melodic death works of the late 90s.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (yesterdays may drown)

http://www.unmoored.com/

Unmoored - Cimmerian (1999)

It's almost too funny that the opening track on the Unmoored debut album is called "Trendmade Bitch", because it sounds quite like the initial death & roll offerings of bands like Entombed and Desultory, with a verse riff pretty close to "Eyemaster". That's not at all what I was expected when I saw the cover art, and might surprise fans who have only been exposed to their later, far greater album Indefinite Soul-Extension, but that's what we're getting here. To be fair though, Cimmerian was released a few years after its recording, and the band had roots in Gothic metal, so such a sound evolving here is a natural course, one that they would eventually develop into something superior.

The death & roll comparisons continue with "Now and Forever", which uses simple, grooving hooks until it can develop a moody, Gothic metal chorus in the bridge. I'm not adverse to the latter, but the getting there can be a little dull. Suddenly, "Down at Zero" explodes, faster and glazed with desperate, effective melodies, and offers some hope that the album might yet have some kick to it. "Blood By Tragedy" is a mess of clean chorus parts and unfortunate Korn or Godsmack-like schizoid chugs in the bridge, though there are a few decent riffs tucked in, and "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" has a guitar part pretty similar to Metallica's "Shortest Straw" fueled by thick Entombed death-punk and a pretty bad breakdown groove riff. "Warsong" and "Solution 45" are entirely skippable, and "Final State" sees the band reverting entirely back to their early Goth roots, a morose piece with manly clean vocals, similar to Cemetery or Type O Negative, only bad...

It's not worth dwelling too hard on this album, because Christian Ävestam would go on to better things for himself in Incapacity, Miseration, Scar Symmetry, and Unmoored itself, but I'm not going to lie, it's a little lame even for a debut. There are very few riffs outside of "Down at Zero" that warrant attention, and the styles clash too openly here, as if Unmoored is not yet sure of itself and its direction. The mix is fairly weak for a Sunlight Studios job with Tomas Skosgberg, and the clean vocals are often embarrassing. Where it rocks & rolls, it fails to live up to the Entombed model. Sure, that band was starting to release some regretful material themselves by this time, but at least kick our butts like Wolverine Blues did. Instead, the album seems to revel in its own mediocrity, on a clearance rack somewhere between the melodeath explosion, death & roll meltdown, and Swedish Goth metal phenomena.

Verdict: Fail [4.5/10] (no use sowing what you cannot till)

http://www.unmoored.com/

Unmoored - Indefinite Soul-Extension (2003)

Yet another band to slip through the cracks during the explosion of melodic Swedish death metal in the late 20th/early 21st centuries is Unmoored. Despite a level of ability rivaling the 'big 3' of In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, and Soilwork, they have never risen out of the 2nd or perhaps 3rd tier of bands. It really is a shame, especially with their third offering Indefinite Soul-Extension, because this is a band who can mix it up with the best of them.

"Unspeakable Grief" christens the album with blazing guitars ala At the Gates, accented with some synths and clean chorus parts similar to those used by Soilwork's 'Speed' Strid during this period. The song also delivers a few meaty grooving hook breakdowns. "Commit to the Fire" opens with a punctual, slower thrashing riff sure to transform any idly waiting mob into a roiling mosh pit, before unleashing some pure old school Swedish death. "Leave-Taking" arpeggiates into some progressive and twisting death, even busting into some atmospheric black metal segments and clean acoustic chorus. That's the strength of Unmoored: their ability to incorporate a myriad of sub-styles into cohesion. "Phase of Revulsion" features some big, moody melodies over charging drums and a choppy thrash verse not unlike Testament. "Morndraper" is short, fast, and furious death metal. "Cinders Veil" is another track balancing a brutal thrust with a catchy, clean vocal chorus and some slower grooves. "Spit Forth from Failure" is possibly the best song on the album, total death metal assault with huge sound. The album ends with the acoustic power ballad "Final State Part III: Posthumous Writings".

As mentioned, the sound here is just loud and clear...HUGE. The guitar tones crush when required, but the acoustics are graceful and the synths are mixed just right so that they always remain where they belong: in the atmosphere. Christian Ävestam's vocals are just right, I particular favor his death growl but his clean vocals do not insult. The lyrics aren't bad either. Indefinite Soul-Extension is a little less groove-laden than its predecessors Cimmerian or Kingdoms of Greed, but at the same time it's more memorable and has a greater depth. Definitely not an album to overlook. It's been years since we've heard from this band, but they are supposedly still active, maybe we'll get a new album soon.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (inmost nature set ablaze)

http://www.unmoored.com/