Nyia
More Than You Expect

A quiet chirping of birds, then...

Something illogically complex and multifaceted, something impossible to grasp and fully comprehend. It may seem melodramatic, but it's precisely the sense of bewilderment conveyed second after second that reigns during the listening of this "More Than You Expected."

If Dillinger Escape Plan stuns you by throwing a thousand ideas per minute in your face, with calculator-like clarity that lets you grasp and perceive THEM ALL, Nyia plays on the edge between music and chaos, fragmenting their songs into a myriad of glassy shards as sharp as razors. Each shard contains reflections of all the others, and vice versa. Try drawing a logical design from such a situation, try making a mental snapshot of it.

Place Antigama, Discordance Axis, and Unsane in a room full of mirrors. Make them all play simultaneously. You will get something that's more than you expect. In other words, Nyia. Who couldn't care less, and between one barrage and another, insert almost brit pop songs, entire minutes of chirping (in the second song, not even after twenty minutes of ghost track), electronic interludes. And then they go back to hitting hard. Dirty, very dirty. The revenge of the autistic, the mute kid who discovers himself as a champion and takes back life's frustrations in the span of half an hour.

Incomprehensible even for those who chew mathcore from breakfast, they will end up being hated by most. Because unmanageable, unjustifiable. Because much more than many expect.

For fans of: Antigama, Dillinger Escape Plan, Unsane, and Converge.

P.S. The review was written on the spot right after listening to the album and under the "effect" of the latter.