For once, step out of your comfort zone and explore the remarkable debut album of All Men Unto Me. This experimental project is led by composer and classical trained vocalist Rylan Gleave who is also known for his avant-garde metal vocals with the Scottish band Ashenspire. In Chemical Transit is an emotional roller coaster born from the effects of testosterone on the mind and voice of protagonist Gleave. First of all, this album has nothing in common with metal or any kind of its sub-genres. Second, In Chemical Transit is an out of the box production that offers the receivers to step out of their comfort zone facing an extraordinary trip through transcendental nightmares and deeply hidden subconscious thoughts.
Gleave teamed up with Simone Seales (cello), Edward Cohen (piano), Ewan Millar (orchestral bass drum) and Ollie Hawker (electronics). In Chemical Transit was recorded live at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in around three hours, in the year 2021. The album wanders through different styles and genres which creates a very diverse and original sound.
Gleave introduces the album with roars and screams guided with ritual beats. It seems as if he tortures himself and thus gets lost in an eruption of hidden emotions. The burst of high-pitched piercing sounds flows into calmer waters with variated voices and creative vocal experiments drawing on contemporary classical, minimalism, post-punk, drone, opera, chamber and church music. Gleave is not ashamed at all to record his broken voice that sounds painfully false (because of the hormone treatment) on the short ‘Interlude’ track. His fascinating vocals alternate between strangled falsetto, guttural shrieks and full-bodied classical baritone. The accompanying musicians support Gleave with captivating piano melodies and humming cello fragments in which pieces of noise are interwoven.
The frame of mind on the album is drenched in murky mysticism and emotional instability. All Men Unto Me pushes the musical boundaries to unknown regions and generates a new kind of emo-avant-garde. On the track ‘Freezing/Flames’ a light experimental Dødheimsgard wind appears in this outstanding and mind blowing recording. In Chemical Transit is a provocative sound capsule for the more open minded music lover who wants to get lost in a resonating maze of dazzling avant-garde music.
