Album Review: Totally Unicorn - Dream Life

It's difficult to know how to begin to surmise a record such as Totally Unicorn's outstanding debut Dream Life.

The rollercoaster ride leaves you incredulous, even after five back to back listens. For an 11-track LP without a single song much longer than three minutes there is so much crammed within it that each idea or motif is dwelled on for a maximum of ten to 15 seconds. With their hallmark being indescribable, inside Totally Unicorn's Dream Life you will find elements of math, metal and grindcore, along with beatdown, doom, punk, prog and thrash. While this leaves Totally Unicorn listening like an Australian hybrid between The Dillinger Escape Plan and Agoraphobic Nosebleed, the emotionally devoid genre conventions of the aforementioned are swiftly shattered.

Drew Gardner's voice is full to the brim with the torment and anguish of a tumultuous yet all too human life experience, while Michael Bennett pummels the drums as if he was playing in Death Grips. Trundling bass lines from Lee Nielson are laid under the dual guitar onslaught of Aaron Streatfeild and Kerim Erkin, whose use of interesting sounds evokes the idea that they could well have recorded through a bunch of angle grinders and other industrial machinery. Combine a sweet collaboration with Karina Utomo of High Tension and you've got a powerfully unique release that has to be one of the rawest outputs of the year so far.