maudlin of the Well - Leaving Your Body Map (2001)^{Release ID: 1314}

Here it is, the remaining piece of the Maudlin of the Well metal puzzle. The one album that made me want to review it along with its debut My Fruit Psychobells... This would be the band's last album before all the members leave it for a different project. They would be... Leaving Your Body Map!

Now that I've listened to this album again, I think it's now tied with its companion album Bath as my favorite Maudlin of the Well album, thereby causing the pair to be one of my favorite avant-prog metal double-albums. Just like the newer, more extreme spawn Ne Obliviscaris, it's a mix of mixes; emo-death metal, astral avant-garde metal, and jazzy progressive metal. One moment there would be a mellow jazz section with trumpets, flutes, and female vocals, and the next there's heavy riffs and death growls.

First track "Stones of October's Sobbing" starts nice and slow before making a sudden switch to early Anathema-esque death-doom with jazzy hints. "Gleam in Ranks" is my favorite here. It starts smooth but eventually gets heavier with pounding drumming in the ending chorus. "Bizarre Flowers/A Violent Mist" has a warm gothic feeling.

Continuing the interludes from Bath, "Interlude 3" is in a more ambient vein. "The Curve That to an Angle Turn'd" also starts slow and smooth for a minute and a half before turning the angle into death-doom, just like the first track. What's different is, just under the 4 minute mark, it switches to nightclub jazz with a clean female/male duet. Nightwish's "Slow Love Slow", anyone? Then the last minute and a half is chaotic jazzy extreme metal! A brilliant highlight! Another favorite is "Sleep is a Curse", which is surprisingly a non-metal song with just acoustic guitars and clean singing, later adding violins. A relaxing break between two chaotic metal songs.

"Riseth He, the Numberless" is a two-track suite, though I think it's better as one track for absolute extreme action! "Part 1" is another highlight, this time being the heaviest song on the album, probably the band! Really, there's no heavier impact this band could've ever made. The lyrics are metal as f***, and the screams/growls sound demonic. Then it transitions to "Part 2", and I ain't sh*tting you when I say the song sounds a lot like Tiamat's Wildhoney; rainy ambiance, a steady drum beat, serene harp, and of course eventually the gothic death-doom heaviness. An epic extreme two-parter!! The final interlude "Interlude 4" has more influences than the other interlude here. Finally, "Monstrously Low Tide" starts with a heavy bombastic intro before becoming peaceful for the rest of the song, with the album ending like how it began, in slow ambiance.

Maudlin of the Well could easily blend genres and add relevant meaning to their music, and that's why they're one of my favorite bands. Sadly, Leaving Your Body Map would be their last metal album before taking a hiatus in favor of side project Kayo Dot then return with a prog-rock album. But still, this is underground avant-prog metal at its best!

Favorites: "Gleam in Ranks", "The Curve That to an Angle Turn'd", "Sleep is a Curse", "Riseth He, the Numberless 1 & 2"