Unitron Thought Industry-Songs for Insects

'Songs for Insects' is the debut studio album by avant-garde/thrash metal band Thought Industry. This is one weird band and album, and you may wonder how they got signed to a major label so quickly in their career. Well, Metallica's Jason Newsted brought their demo to the ears of Metal Blade Records and they were signed on. Thought Industry would continue to be pretty damn weird until their fourth release in 1997 when they moved in an alternative rock direction.

If you listen to this album once, you most likely won't fully understand it. However, the more you listen, the more the pure strangeness just sinks into your brain. This is no ordinary thrash album as you can most likely tell by the usage of Salvador Dali's 'Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonitions of Civil War)' as an album cover. This is a crazy avant-garde technical thrash metal album with a big smorgasbord of musical styles combined, and probably one of the most unique albums I've ever heard. The opening track 'Third Eye' is an instant gem. I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it, the fast-paced drum beats and the grooving stomp of the guitars opens this song perfectly. Once Brent Oberlin's vocals come in, it fits perfectly with the crunching guitar and just sends chills down my spine. Easily my favorite on the album.

The weirdness comes in with the next song, the title track. This nearly 10-minute song never stays in one place. From thrashing goodness, to menacing passages with meandering guitar, to crazy drumming combined with wacky bass slaps that would later be heard in Mudvayne's 'L.D. 50' album. My second favorite from the album is probably 'Cornerstone' with it's industrial groove. Oberlin gives some strange vocals here, with weird guitar and mechanical drum pounding. The avant-garde strangeness continues with 'Daughter Mobius', which enters in with what sounds like some folk dance before thrashing guitar comes in. Next is the beautiful acoustic track 'Alexander Vs. The Puzzle', before being assaulted with another wacky thrash song in 'Ballerina' with great unique vocals from Oberlin. As you can probably tell, the lyrics are mostly surreal and unconventional, matching the Dali album cover.

Overall, this will most likely be one of the weirdest albums you'll ever hear. It may take a few listens to really enjoy it, but I highly recommend this album to anyone wanting something weird, avant-garde, and unique. If you like thrash metal, groove metal, industrial metal, or anything avant-garde, this has elements of all of those. Hope you found this review helpful.

Feel free to comment!

siLLy puPPy First of all, I must say that this didn't start out as a masterpiece when I first heard it 20 years ago. I picked up this first album by the Kalamazoo, Michigan band totally by chance not knowing a thing about it. Only intrigued by the Dali cover art, the band name, the title and the track names. Nothing else was like this then and to this day I still have not heard anything that sounds like this. Once I started listening it was a very strange form of metal indeed. I'm still not sure what this is but I guess progressive punky thrash metal would be the best description that fits but there's an avant-garde feel to the whole thing as well.

Even after the first listen I wasn't sure if I liked this but there was an underlying catchiness to it that kept me listening to it over and over. After many years and many listens, SONGS FOR INSECTS has grown on me to the point where I love this album and it ranks very high on my faves list. Every song is well constructed. With interesting philosophical lyrics and progressive twists and turns, it really takes you on intriguing rides. I pretty much love everything about this including the vocals by frontman Brent Oberlin, which at first sound a little weak but over time I have found them perfect for the sound and it doesn't dissuade me from giving this album the highest of praise.