Unexpect
Encyclopedia
Unexpect is an avant-garde extreme metal
band from Montreal
, Canada
featuring a unique amalgamation of different styles of music, including black metal
, death metal
, thrash metal
, progressive metal
, melodic heavy metal
, classical music
, dark cabaret
, opera
, medieval music
, jazz
, funk
, electro, ambient
, noise
, gypsy music, and circus music
.
The band's debut album, Utopia
, was independently released. The band only had word of mouth and the Internet to market the work. With unorthodox distribution and online support, the album sold successfully.
in 1998, which was later released in 1999. This first offering was critically acclaimed by many countries around the world, even with little distribution, and with the internet as their only support. A new era began for unexpecT with the release of their new EP
entitled We, Invaders
in November 2003. This EP was released on the Canadian label Galy Records
. They then signed with New York-based The End Records
and the band's second album In a Flesh Aquarium
was released on August 22, 2006 in North America. ChaotH introduced his trademark 9-stringed bass during a Galy Records show on June 4, 2005. Unexpect released their 3rd full-length album, Fables of the Sleepless Empire, on May 31, 2011. Pre-order copies were signed by the band. Brick-and-mortar sales of the album are not planned, and at the moment it appears that it will only be sold online.
Winners of the 7th annual Independent Music Awards
Vox Pop vote for best Hard Rock/Metal Album "In a Flesh Aquarium".
and Giant Squid
. They have also played with bands like Sodom
, Finntroll
, Kataklysm
, and Green Carnation
. Unexpect were supposed to open for the Swedish blackened death metal band Dissection
during their last U.S. tour at B. B. King
's club in New York City
, but the show was cancelled due to Dissection's inability to obtain entrance into the country. Unexpect played on September 3, 2006 at the Emerging Music Festival in Rouyn-Noranda, Abitibi-Témiscamingue
. More recently, the band has opened up for power metal act Sonata Arctica
and death metal act Nile
with thrash metal band Warbringer
as well as playing the Heavy MTL festival on June 21, 2008 along with the likes of Overkill
, 3 Inches of Blood
, Mastodon
and Iron Maiden
. Unexpect also headlined the Flight of the Valkyries
festival in St. Paul, MN in June 2008.http://www.femalemetalfest.com/history.html In 2009 the band accompanied Dream Theater
, Opeth
and Bigelf
on the inaugural Progressive Nation European tour.
Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
band from Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
featuring a unique amalgamation of different styles of music, including black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
, death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
, thrash metal
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
, progressive metal
Progressive metal
Progressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal originating in the United Kingdom and North America in the late 1980s...
, melodic heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, dark cabaret
Dark Cabaret
Dark cabaret may be a simple description of the theme and mood of a cabaret performance, but more recently has come to define a particular musical genre which draws on the aesthetics of the decadent, risqué German Weimar-era cabarets, burlesque and vaudeville shows with the stylings of post-1970s...
, opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, medieval music
Medieval music
Medieval music is Western music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends sometime in the early fifteenth century...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, electro, ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
, noise
Noise music
Noise music is a term used to describe varieties of avant-garde music and sound art that may use elements such as cacophony, dissonance, atonality, noise, indeterminacy, and repetition in their realization. Noise music can feature distortion, various types of acoustically or electronically...
, gypsy music, and circus music
Circus music
Circus music is any sort of music that is played to accompany a circus, and also music written that emulates its general style. The most common type of circus music is the circus march, or screamer, which are marches played at very fast tempos...
.
The band's debut album, Utopia
Utopia (Unexpect album)
Utopia is the first full-length album by Canadian avant-garde extreme metal band Unexpect. It was released in 1999 by the band itself and is recorded and mixed by the band with help of Serge Cosette.-Track listing:#"Vespers Gold" – 7:32...
, was independently released. The band only had word of mouth and the Internet to market the work. With unorthodox distribution and online support, the album sold successfully.
History
From their beginning in 1996, unexpecT saw their share of line-up changes, as only two members from this period are still in the band: Artagoth and SyriaK. Unexpect then recorded their first full-length album entitled UtopiaUtopia (Unexpect album)
Utopia is the first full-length album by Canadian avant-garde extreme metal band Unexpect. It was released in 1999 by the band itself and is recorded and mixed by the band with help of Serge Cosette.-Track listing:#"Vespers Gold" – 7:32...
in 1998, which was later released in 1999. This first offering was critically acclaimed by many countries around the world, even with little distribution, and with the internet as their only support. A new era began for unexpecT with the release of their new EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
entitled We, Invaders
WE, Invaders
_wE, Invaders is the second release, and first EP by Canadian avant-garde extreme metal band uneXpect.-Track listing:#"Novaë" – 6:52#"Rooted Shadows" – 6:08#"In Velvet Coffins We Slept" – 8:22#"Chromatic Chimera" – 5:14...
in November 2003. This EP was released on the Canadian label Galy Records
Galy Records
Galy Records is a Canadian independent record label based in Verdun, Quebec, founded by Eric Galy in 2002. The label includes albums released for bands such as Dead Brain Cells, Neuraxis, Despised Icon, Gorguts, Unexpect, Infernäl Mäjesty, Anvil, Soulscar, Beneath the Massacre, Coprofago, Ion...
. They then signed with New York-based The End Records
The End Records
The End Records is an independent record label, founded in 1998 in San Diego. Founder Andreas Katsambas initially wanted to bring attention to some underground bands he admired. In 2002, The End moved to Salt Lake City, when his wife took a job at the University of Utah. The label moved...
and the band's second album In a Flesh Aquarium
In a Flesh Aquarium
In a Flesh Aquarium is the second full-length album by Canadian avant-garde extreme metal band uneXpect. It was released on August 22, 2006 through The End Records. This is the first album to include Landryx as the new drummer and the last album to feature Le Bateleur on violin.SyriaK wrote all...
was released on August 22, 2006 in North America. ChaotH introduced his trademark 9-stringed bass during a Galy Records show on June 4, 2005. Unexpect released their 3rd full-length album, Fables of the Sleepless Empire, on May 31, 2011. Pre-order copies were signed by the band. Brick-and-mortar sales of the album are not planned, and at the moment it appears that it will only be sold online.
Winners of the 7th annual Independent Music Awards
The Independent Music Awards
The Independent Music Awards is an international program that honors top-ranked independent artists and releases in more than 50 Album, Song, Music Video and Design categories....
Vox Pop vote for best Hard Rock/Metal Album "In a Flesh Aquarium".
Tours
In 2006, Unexpect finished their Canadian and U.S. tour with Augury, with some dates also playing with such bands as The GatheringThe Gathering (band)
The Gathering is a Dutch alternative rock band, founded in 1989 by brothers Hans and René Rutten and vocalist Bart Smits in the small city of Oss, North Brabant....
and Giant Squid
Giant Squid (band)
Giant Squid is a post-metal band from San Francisco, California, currently signed to Translation Loss and Vega Vinyl. They were previously signed to The End Records.-Early years :...
. They have also played with bands like Sodom
Sodom (band)
Sodom is a German Thrash metal trio from Gelsenkirchen, formed in 1981.Along with the bands Kreator and Destruction, Sodom is considered one of the "big three" of Teutonic thrash metal...
, Finntroll
Finntroll
Finntroll is a folk metal band from Helsinki, Finland. They combine elements of black metal and folk metal. Finntroll's lyrics are mostly in Swedish, the only exception being the song "Madon Laulu" on Visor Om Slutet...
, Kataklysm
Kataklysm
Kataklysm is a Canadian death metal band. They call their musical style "northern hyperblast" after an advertisement in M.E.A.T. magazine describing another band, Fear Factory, as "hyperblast". The term refers to the extremely fast blast beats that Kataklysm's drummer, Max Duhamel, fuses into the...
, and Green Carnation
Green Carnation
Green Carnation is a band from Kristiansand, Norway formed in 1990 that has created songs from both the progressive rock and progressive metal genres. Some also describe their music as art rock...
. Unexpect were supposed to open for the Swedish blackened death metal band Dissection
Dissection (band)
Dissection was a black metal band from Strömstad, Sweden. The band was formed in 1989, by Jon Nödtveidt. The band released its first EP in 1991. They disbanded in 2006, after Nödtveidt's suicide.- Band overview :...
during their last U.S. tour at B. B. King
B. B. King
Riley B. King , known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter.Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. According to Edward M...
's club in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, but the show was cancelled due to Dissection's inability to obtain entrance into the country. Unexpect played on September 3, 2006 at the Emerging Music Festival in Rouyn-Noranda, Abitibi-Témiscamingue
Abitibi-Témiscamingue
Abitibi-Témiscamingue is a region located in western Quebec, Canada, along the border with Ontario. It became part of the province in 1898. It has a land area of 57,674.26 km2 . As of the 2006 census, the population of the region was 143,872 inhabitants.-History:The land was first occupied...
. More recently, the band has opened up for power metal act Sonata Arctica
Sonata Arctica
Sonata Arctica are a Finnish power metal band from the town of Kemi, originally assembled in 1995. Their later works contain several elements typical of progressive metal.....
and death metal act Nile
Nile (band)
Nile is an American death metal band from Greenville, South Carolina, formed in 1993. Their music and lyrics are inspired by Ancient Egyptian/Near Eastern mysticism, history, religion, and art, as well as stories by H. P. Lovecraft.- History :...
with thrash metal band Warbringer
Warbringer
Warbringer is an American thrash metal band. The band formed in 2004. Warbringer is signed to Century Media Records. Century Media signed Warbringer after seeing them at a local show in LA. Originally, a Century Media rep was at the show to see another LA thrash metal band but decided to sign...
as well as playing the Heavy MTL festival on June 21, 2008 along with the likes of Overkill
Overkill (band)
Overkill is an American thrash metal band, formed in 1980 in New Jersey. They have gone through many line-up changes, with singer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth and bassist D.D. Verni remaining from the original lineup. Along with Anthrax , the band is one of the most successful East Coast thrash metal...
, 3 Inches of Blood
3 Inches of Blood
3 Inches of Blood is a Canadian heavy metal band formed in 2000 in Vancouver, British Columbia, currently consisting of Cam Pipes, Justin Hagberg, Shane Clark, and Ash Pearson...
, Mastodon
Mastodon (band)
Mastodon is an American heavy metal band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 1999. The band is composed of bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, guitarist Bill Kelliher and drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor...
and Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden
Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in east London, formed in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. Since their inception, the band's discography has grown to include a total of thirty-six albums: fifteen studio albums; eleven live albums; four EPs; and six...
. Unexpect also headlined the Flight of the Valkyries
Flight of the Valkyries
Flight of the Valkyries is an annual metal festival with editions held St. Paul, MN and recently Baltimore, MD. The music festival is dedicated to metal bands with female lead vocalists....
festival in St. Paul, MN in June 2008.http://www.femalemetalfest.com/history.html In 2009 the band accompanied Dream Theater
Dream Theater
Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would...
, Opeth
Opeth
Opeth is a Swedish heavy metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1990. Though the group has been through several personnel changes, singer, guitarist, and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt has remained Opeth's driving force throughout the years...
and Bigelf
Bigelf
Bigelf is a progressive rock/progressive metal band formed in Los Angeles, CA in 1991. They have since released three studio albums.-Biography:...
on the inaugural Progressive Nation European tour.
Current members
- Syriak (ex-Magister Dixit) – vocals, guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
(1996- ) - Artagoth – vocals, guitar (1996- )
- ChaotH – bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
(2001- ) - Leïlindel – vocals (2001- )
- Landryx – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
(2004- ) - Blaise Borboën-Léonard – violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
(2007- )
Previous members
- Exod – keyboardsElectronic keyboardAn electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...
, samplingSampling (music)In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
(1996-2002 as Drummer, 2002–2010) - Le Bateleur – violin (1996–2006)
- Elda – vocals (1996–2001)
- Zircon – bass guitar (1996–2001)
- Merzenya – keyboards (1996–2001)
- Dasnos – drums (2003)
- Anthony Trujillo – drums (2002)
Discography
- UtopiaUtopia (Unexpect album)Utopia is the first full-length album by Canadian avant-garde extreme metal band Unexpect. It was released in 1999 by the band itself and is recorded and mixed by the band with help of Serge Cosette.-Track listing:#"Vespers Gold" – 7:32...
(1999, self-released) - wE, InvadersWE, Invaders_wE, Invaders is the second release, and first EP by Canadian avant-garde extreme metal band uneXpect.-Track listing:#"Novaë" – 6:52#"Rooted Shadows" – 6:08#"In Velvet Coffins We Slept" – 8:22#"Chromatic Chimera" – 5:14...
EP (2003, Galy Records; distributed by The End RecordsThe End RecordsThe End Records is an independent record label, founded in 1998 in San Diego. Founder Andreas Katsambas initially wanted to bring attention to some underground bands he admired. In 2002, The End moved to Salt Lake City, when his wife took a job at the University of Utah. The label moved...
) - In a Flesh AquariumIn a Flesh AquariumIn a Flesh Aquarium is the second full-length album by Canadian avant-garde extreme metal band uneXpect. It was released on August 22, 2006 through The End Records. This is the first album to include Landryx as the new drummer and the last album to feature Le Bateleur on violin.SyriaK wrote all...
(2006, The End RecordsThe End RecordsThe End Records is an independent record label, founded in 1998 in San Diego. Founder Andreas Katsambas initially wanted to bring attention to some underground bands he admired. In 2002, The End moved to Salt Lake City, when his wife took a job at the University of Utah. The label moved...
) - Fables of the Sleepless EmpireFables of the Sleepless EmpireFables of the Sleepless Empire is the third full-length album by Canadian avant-garde extreme metal band uneXpect. It was released Independently on May 31, 2011- Track listing :#"Unsolved Ideas of a Distorted Guest" – 6:54#"Words" – 5:57...
(May 31, 2011, self-released)
External links
- UneXpect at The End RecordsThe End RecordsThe End Records is an independent record label, founded in 1998 in San Diego. Founder Andreas Katsambas initially wanted to bring attention to some underground bands he admired. In 2002, The End moved to Salt Lake City, when his wife took a job at the University of Utah. The label moved...
- UneXpect at MyspaceMyspaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
- UneXpect at Encyclopaedia MetallumEncyclopaedia MetallumEncyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives is a website which lists bands from various forms of heavy metal music...