Reviews list for Candiria - Surrealistic Madness (1995)

For far too long, old forgotten albums have been in the unknown void. If only I could have a time machine that could allow to teleport back in time to when they were still remembered. The debut album from Candiria isn't easy to absorb, it sounds quite weird with some superb points! Straight outta Brooklyn, Candiria want to make any d*mn music they wanted, with no fear of being criticized. Since their 1992 formation, they've crossed through a diverse sonic mix of styles and experienced several lineup changes and hiatuses, plus a tour van crash in 2002 that severely injured all the members at that time, but fortunately they recovered. Their most recent album came out in 2016. But now we're gonna experience the first part of their diverse journey, their debut Surrealistic Madness!

I had not known much of this band before this encounter, and it's quite incredibly strange having come across this album for the first time, as if the cover art and title wasn't enough of a tip-off. Many fans have praised this band, but little did they know the existence of this offering! Some things are quite notable when you catch up with the context of the sonic music. It's quite a bizarre combination that works sometimes. There's also lots of death metal groove here, but is this really enough to create deathcore? Well the style I would say is progressive mathcore, and this album is the first of that style, but is more of a mix with that and technical death metal, along with jazz interludes. The album is also known as their only one without longtime guitarist John LaMacchia. Instead they had the late Chris Puma (RIP) who also wrote some guitar parts for their second album that were performed by LaMacchia. Puma's guitar work was quite impressive though...

You can hear it in the first of two songs that were re-recorded for later, "Temple of Sickness". At over the 4-minute mark is a brutal slam-core breakdown, then a minute later, the vocals reach death-growling while having the mid-paced metalcore of Cold as Life. The one-minute interlude "Wind" seems like a bit of a waste. I mean it's OK, but it sounds too much like a futile attempt at a different experiment of tribal drumming. "Elevate in Madness" is the second of two tracks re-recorded for The Process of Self-Development, trying again their mosh-core bridge between jazz and tech-death. The fantastic "Infected Wisdom" is for some reason only available in the original version. That's too bad because the awesome jazz-infused progressive death/mathcore is still around.

"Toying with the Insanities" is another useless one-minute interlude. The only thing amusing is the possibility that they made this using only bathroom appliances. "Mental Crossover" definitely sounds like a crossover between mathy hardcore and deathgrind, especially in the vocals. "Observing Highways" is another amazing track that was only in the original. But what's different here is, this is basically just progressive jazz, sounding like Herbie Hancock contributed to the SimCity soundtrack. "Pages" is a return to some great deathly hardcore insanity. They unleash furious fire in a brief breakdown in the last 20 seconds.

For the next track "Weep", it starts off like something from a horror movie soundtrack before going full-on jazz in the last minute. "Red Eye Flight" is a f***ing treat. The first minute is deathly hardcore but after that is a 10-minute string/synth jazz interlude. Holy sh*t, some of the jazzy parts actually work pretty well on and off. Not something I would listen to if I'm in a pure metal mood, but it has decent potential. There are two bonus tracks in the 1999 re-issue, starting with the dissonant yet jazzed-up "Chaos in the Middle of Perfectly Illogical Sense". The other bonus track "Purity Condemned" is from an earlier demo and, one minute and 20 seconds in, has a killer breakdown.

This band's experimental journey began in Surrealistic Madness. I'm sure longtime fans of the band would love it to bits and probably finally give it the credit and praise that has been missing all these years. But for someone who has just discovered this today, it would have to take a very long time to get used to it before I like it more. There's more than meets the ears, and you would find a lot more of it if you're a professional listener of experimental jazz/death metal/mathcore....

Favorites: "Temple of Sickness", "Infected Wisdom", "Observing Highways", "Pages", "Red Eye Flight" (parts of it), "Purity Condemned" (bonus track)