It goes without saying that the strings Azure Emote pulls throughout "The Gravity of Impermanence" are some of the most ambitious and daring themes comprehendible.

Hrubovcak is joined by Mike Heller on drums, returning shredder Ryan Moll, and a cornucopia of unexpected guest musicians and instrument masters. Azure Emote rides a colorful spectrum of bloody lawlessness that forces death metal into a bold frontier of originality, not reliant on blast beats or half-assed Morbid Angel riffs but total artistic supremacy and an embrace of the unexpected. Strange extreme metal has, of course, become somewhat of a conventional practice since the inception of bands like Cynic, Atheist, Unexpect, Sigh and others, but Azure Emote emerges as an anomaly among the anomalies, if that makes sense. Their approach uses the guitar work as a foundation for the experimental themes and instruments, allowing lots of room for whatever insane color they paint the sky with.

The only downside to this formula is the lackluster riffing, which has its moments but generally fails to capture a memorable rotation. Then again, something like this earns its appeal because of the saxophones and keyboards and samples and soprano vocals and frenzied bass work and weird melodies and violins and harmonicas and strange compositions, not the basic grinding of everyday death metal. The production is a perfect example of a wondrous mixing job: the balance of instruments and sounds is more than clear and cohesive despite the army of musical bombs nailing it every second, and Ron Vento did a splendid job leashing this monster. Heller's tight percussion is technical and zesty, while Hrubovcak himself delivers stellar guttural bellows between the musical insanity.

The real meat and potatoes of "The Gravity of Impermanence," though, come from its avant-garde and industrial influences. The female vocals provided by Melissa Koch and Sandra Laureano match the clean and harsh male vocals with incredible power, making tunes like "Carpe Diem" confusing wonders of emotion and bliss. The middle-eastern saxophone solo layered over chugging riffs on the maddening "Obsessive Time Directive" is crazy enough to induce schizophrenia, yet equally enthralling. It's essentially an album built upon samples, keyboards that explore a variety of strange and satisfying sounds, atypical vocal patterns and performances, and a lot of kaleidoscopic differences between each song. However, the total piece appears very comfortable despite its extraordinary circumstances, and Hrubovcak and crew did a fantastic job making these tunes digestible and vibrant.