(((O))) Review: Asymmetric Universe – A Memory and What Came After

Formed back in 2018 by the Vese brothers, Federico and Nicolo in their home country in Turin, Italy, Asymmetric Universe blends the combination of progressive metal, jazz, and complexity when it comes to ranging in their outlets they bring forth in their music. They had released two EPs from 2019 to 2023, opening for bands such as Ne Obliviscaris and Persefone in the Exul in the European/United Kingdom tour back in 2023.

Followed by being signed to the InsideOut label last year, playing at the ArcTangent Festival, the band have unleashed their first full-length debut this year entitle A Memory and What Came After. It is a real corker that’ll get your fist pumping with sheer electricity. The album cover says it all. At first, you think it is something straight out of the Dimension M album, released by French keyboardist Franck Dervieux back in 1975, but it is very striking, and very unique in the way the brothers have may tipped their hats to him.

And to be allowed to have Haken guitarist Richard Henshall and Sungazer saxophonist Jared Yee on the album, they knew that this was going to be a year, and a moment in their lives they will never forget. Adding in, those complex time changes and fiery improv with beautiful string sections, the textures and wondrous arrangements coming out of the woodwork between ‘Don’t Go Too Early’ and the industrial powder-keg eruption turned flamenco twists with an ambient sense of wonder on ‘Reaction – Overthrow’ with Jared’s nod to Mel Collins during the Red-era from King Crimson, makes it all worthwhile.

With ‘Dancing Through Contradictions’ it becomes an odd loop which has a piano, tango, and the duo ranging through the speed of time of difficult time changes and particles of the Rock in Opposition movement, blaring horn sections, bebop piano arrangements from Nicolo, you nearly wanted to spit out your drink and ask yourself “Wait a minute! What?! What did they just do there?!” It gets even more exciting as it goes on.

Now this is where things get really, really good. Hearing a track like ‘Opaco’ you almost think the first band that comes out of your head is Mr. Bungle. That’s the first moment what Aymmetric Universe is doing, tipping their hat to Mike Patton’s incredible momentum, going from Faith No More to the Bungle-era. But when Richard lends a hand behind the opening track ‘Coquelicot’, it blends in the futuristic quality that gets you up-and-running.

The thrashing attack, machine gun drum sounds, fusion-like nods to Herbie Hancock and The Mahavishnu Orchestra with a bit of Stanley Clarke’s School Days in the middle, but adding in that Mars Volta effect right in the middle of the battleground, you get a sense that the Vese brothers aren’t just messing around, they’re getting down to business and making sure the job is completed, top to bottom.