Ever since we got Candiria's 300% Density back in stock a few months ago, I've been going back through their albums and doing a bit of re-discovery. Their 00's output on Century Media and MIA is pretty tight, but I still think that their first two albums, the primal blasts of creativity that were Surrealistic Madness and Beyond Reasonable Doubt, still hold up as the band's most out-there, mind bending statements. Based out of Brooklyn, NY, Candiria's sprawling urban fusion sound brought together brutal metalcore, hip-hop, fusion jazz, funk, and avant-electronica into a surreal street vision, equal parts ultra-technical Meshuggah math metal crush, supreme 70's style Return To Forever/ Mahavishnu Orchestra fusion jazz, and dark, Wu Tang/Kool Keith-esque hip-hop. Now, normally I like to keep this sort of chocolate far away from my peanut butter, as I have an extremely low tolerance for anything that remotely sounds like """"nu-metal"""", but Candiria were the one band that could combine hip-hop and metal elements into something that was far more cerebral and sonically adventurous than pretty much anything else that was coming out of both 90's metalcore and then-burgeoning nu-metal scene. So intense and jazz-damaged and BRUTALLY HEAVY when the band is full-on crush-it mode, and when they suddenly switch into the fusion parts, it's mesmerizing. Massive metalcore breakdowns are taken over by lush horn fanfares. Lopsided deathcore grinding gives way to trancey hip-hop flow. Songs are bookended by evocative fields of urban ambient sounds.
1995's Surrealistic Madness was the band's debut full length, and is amazingly just as damaged and ferociously imaginative and surreal as the band's later work, with more of a brutal death metal vibe that would dissipate over the course of subsequent albums. Carly Coma's vocals are at their most monstrous here, This album also features what is probably my most favorite Candiria jam ever, the song """"Elevate In Madness"""" (which originally appeared on the band's Deep In The Mental 7"""" EP on Devestating Soundworks). At approximately 1:25 into 'ELevate In Madness"""" the band breaks into a mindblowing Latin freestyle passage that flips my fucking wig every single time I hear it. Awesome, mind-bending avant-metalcore/urban fusion that still remains years ahead of it's time. This is the original release on the now-defunct label Too Damn Hype, sporting Coma's bizarre techno style album art and design.