ALBUM REVIEW: Realm Unseen - The Origin

This review was originally published on Sputnikmusic.

Pakistan is not really a place where you’d expect to find a wealth of heavy metal bands. The country has suffered from its neighbours conflicts (as a result of Islamist extremism), assassinations of politicians and continued tensions with India, so the recipe for rage is there but is often suppressed by the threat of retribution from rogue Islamists. Enter Realm Unseen, a young quartet from Islamabad who have quietly put together and released their debut EP, The Origin.

I’ll have to be honest here and say there are a lot of problems in this EP. The production is very muddy and the mix isn’t great, while some individual performances seem a little derivative. The first “proper” track, IRK, has very similar thrashy squeals to Your Sacrifice and some of the more complex sections of songs have the feel that the musicians can’t quite keep up with each other. Frontman Mohammed Ahsan Khan delivers a very hit-and-miss vocal performance, with a mix of clean vocals, harsh barking and borderline rapping meaning there is little chance for him to properly hone his skills in a specific vocal style and some of the more anime-influenced sounding lead riffs don’t seem right for the overall feel of the songs.

However, there are some interesting riffs, such as the much more nu-metal influenced grooves of U, and there is a healthy use of sampling in the intros to some songs which gives a darker tone to the music. The drumming work is very rhythmic and helps to hold the songs together when the lead and rhythm guitars become a bit too detached (which, unfortunately, happens far too often to make a cohesive listen).

Despite all the issues present on this EP, there are signs that these guys can be a rough gem. With better production and more time to properly focus their songwriting their brand of groove metal could strike a chord somewhere along the line, perhaps aided with the intrigue of such a band coming from a conflict torn country (a la psychedelic metallers District Unknown, from Afghanistan). And in any case, all bands have to start somewhere, and at least they haven’t suffered the pitfalls of un-tuned instruments (see: Sepultura) or cheesy glam rock (Pantera). Listening to this album from start to finish can be a chore, but these boys are still learning their trade and one should hope that they’ll be stronger in the years to come.