Outopsya Sum
by Trevor Portz
Staff Writer
There’s something to be said for bands that try to out-weird everyone else. There’s also something to be said for bands that try to out-tech everyone else. Pushing limits can result in some amazingly interesting and new musical creations. If it weren’t for luminaries like Yes, Frank Zappa, Primus, and more recently, Norway’s Shining, the rock and metal worlds would be far more generic. The inherent problem with being far out, though, is being TOO far out. There is a point where weirdness and technicality cease being interesting, and instead become no more than a novelty with nothing memorable attached. Such is the case with Sum, the new album from Outopsya (OUT Of PSYchical Activity—not sure what that means). It’s technically outstanding, completely strange, and ultimately forgettable.
Essentially a one-man band (leader Luca Vianini handles guitars, vox, synths, and drum programming, with bass and female vocals handled by other members), Outopsya certainly seem keen on pushing limits. There are barely any moments on Sum that aren’t chaos-filled explosions of noise. Not that the album isn’t at all musical—this is far from the banging and clanging of many noise acts—but by going so out of their way to make every bit crazier than the last, one is left feeling more like the victim of a forced psychotropic high than musically satisfied.
Breaking the songs down individually seems almost futile, as describing each would require far too many meaningless analogies. Instead, it is perhaps easiest to imagine what would happen if synth-heavy dance music, jazz fusion, prog metal, neo-classical shredding, death metal, stoner rock, country, funk, and rap (yup- check out opener “Lords of Hate), were all put in a blender. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? Yes, well, it’s hard to listen to, too. It’s so unsettling and unrelenting, that it’s virtually impossible to retain any sense of what has just happened.
Now, it cannot be argued that Mr. Vianini is a ridiculous talent. His guitar playing is not only Vai-influenced, but of the same caliber. His arrangements are so involved and complicated that it’s hard to imagine learning an entire set worth of material. Additionally, the drum programming is some of the best on record, sounding both completely real, yet almost too complex to be so. His biggest downfall, from a performance standpoint, of course, would be his vocals. They tend to drone on and are counter to the insanity that they attempt to moan over. Female vocalist Ylenia Zenatti is a vast improvement, and should be considered for a permanent lead vocalist position.
In addition to being an excellent multi-instrumentalist, Vianini is also very adept at studio engineering (he did it all himself), using digital recording software and keyboards to manipulate everything and create some very unique soundscapes. Of course, as with everything on this album, he also goes a bit overboard throughout, and this is exemplified on closing title track, “Sum.” A mix of fast-forwarded, chipmunk-vocaled silliness and slowed-down, pseudo death metal evil, the track comes off as more self parody than anything else. For a better use of speed altering, Vianini would be advised to check out the brilliant “Ants” from Devin Townsend’s Infinity. Or perhaps he already has, and attempted to recreate it here…without success.
Giving Sum a numerical rating is very difficult. Based solely on technical talent, it would be hard to give it anything less than a 10. The same goes for rating it based on how interesting and out of control it is. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, there’s more to quality music than technicality and strangeness. Sum offers little in the way of memorable moments, and doesn’t create much of a need for repeated listens. Not to say that Outopsya won’t build a following of elitist fusion metal geeks, but if they want to be remembered for years to come, they’ll need to infuse a bit more music into their, erm, music.
Genre: Progressive/Fusion Metal
Band:
Luca Vianini (v,g,k,etc)
Evan Mazzucchi (b)
Track Listing:
1. Lords Of Hate
2. Möthal
3. Mus
4. Don’t Mind
5. Tarred Life
6. Mechanical 7
7. SandNess
8. Sum
Label: VideoRadio
Website: http://www.myspace.com/outopsya
Hardrock Haven rating: 4.9/10