While re-listening to Bitches Brew tonight it occurred to me, there’s never been anything that sounds quite like it since, and there never will be again.
What are your favorite unicorn albums?
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I’m loving these comments, so many great albums! And a ton I’ve never hear of and will need to check out.
I have a few of these, but two that really jump out at me are
- The Inevitable Rise And Liberation Of Niggy Tardust - Saul Williams
- Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By - Lovage
- Common People - William Shatner
These are albums that you’ve just gotta let play.
e: can’t believe I forgot Shatner!
Love that Lovage baby. That album is a gem.
Lovage is actually quite similar to instrumental hiphop/breaks that was released on Ninja Tune in the nineties. DJ Food, The Cinematic Orchestra, Wagon Christ, Coldcut, that kind of stuff.
The Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come … blending melodic, hardcore, jazz, and electronic into one punk album
Salmon - Paco Drop the Chicken … Very eclectic rap / punk, beat-oriented with lots of changes. A personal favorite “local” band.
How is it possible that I’m the first to mention Days of Future Past?
*Passed, right?
Yes. Of course. My bad.
Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
Most albums by Mamaleek. They change up the sound on each record, and still stay unlike anyone else. Check out ‘Diner Coffee’ and ‘Vida Blue’.
Extol’s “Burial”. Very smooth sounding record considering its bordering on Technical Death Metal.
Decapitated’s “Nihility”. I don’t know if drums have ever sounded more violent, tonally.
Suffocation’s “Pierced From Within”. Unique in that IMO that level of brutality and density has still never been matched.
Ulver’s “Nattens Madrigal”. Bees in a tin can.
Literally anything by Ad Nauseum.
Man, I could go on and on about this. So many metal records have one of a kind production.
Ulver’s “Nattens Madrigal”. Bees in a tin can.
Hilarious and accurate. And that one acoustic passage that makes you think “hey maybe there will be more like this”.
At least they gave us Kveldssanger to scratch that itch. 😆
Hell yeah. And Bergtatt, “ahh, just right”.
A beautifully written and produced record for sure.
Not only are none of those unicorn albums if you randomly select timestamps in most of them, you can’t tell you even jumped. I used to love this kind of music, but you’ve failed the assignment. The question was not to solicit albums you like.
Entombed - Left Hand Path is an example where it helped redefine a genre, and nothing before or since has sounded like it (because they innovated the ‘buzz saw’ guitar sound).
Pierced From Within didn’t define the sound of Brutal Death Metal?
Nattens Madrigal didn’t innovate for Raw Black Metal?
There’s not a single record that sounds like Nihility does, nor does anything sound like Burial both in production and composition.
This question is asking for subjective answers. There’s no such thing as failure as you so kindly put it, only difference of opinion.
Your suggestion that LHP is somehow more appropriate of a response ignores the fact that it did the exact same thing for Swedish DM as Suffocation did for BDM.
The crux of my question was “unicorn”.
So if I can listen to 100 random metal tracks and they all sound derivative, it misses the point. Reach for albums that actually are unique in your suggestions.
I used to be a serious metal fan, so I’m no hater, but let’s be real.
I researched and listened to much of what was suggested in the comment, it all sounds exactly the same as every other death/speed/thrash/grind that’s been done to death aha. At least with LHP there’s a sound that can never be created again due to the unique equipment they borrowed, and their special configuration thereof. I don’t even think LHP qualifies as an answer to my own thread but at least there was effort in that suggestion, and I’d put money down that you can’t reference another album that sounds like it, where I can post 100 for every in the parent comment.
Metal folks ITT seem to be profoundly missing the point of my post.
You’re telling me you can’t get a hold of an HM-2 and a Peavey Rage 158 or a Bandit? Three of my friends had the Rage 158 as their first amp and you can just buy an HM-2 on Reverb if you don’t know anyone that already owns one.
People have recreated the LHP sound countless times. Entombed is not the only band to ever do it.
Igorrr - Spirituality and Distortion.
Latest album is great too. And the OG whourkr stuff
Imaginary Audience by Mindchatter comes to mind.
Geneva jacuzzi - Lamaze. I challenge you to find something more unique.
Let’s put in Joker’s Daughter - The Last Laugh. The track Lucid particulary is exemplary of what puts the corn on this uni. A Danger Mouse joint.
Cake’s first album Fashion Nugget is the kind of unique that we rarely see twice.
Cocteau Twins: Heaven Or Las Vegas
Endtroducing by DJ Shadow
It’s his inaugural album and there’s never been anything quite like it. Even his follow up albums, with his unique sound, feel a bit different than this one (not in a bad way, but I don’t think they meet your unicorn criteria).
Also, I think this easily goes in my top ten albums list.
I never heard of this artist or album before, so far I’m 1/4 through the listening and digging it, thanks for posting
Prince - Sign O the Times
One of the few albums I listen to beginning to end.
Also, Pink Floyd. Pretty much any album, but specifically Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here.
Check out the 1977 Prince Funk Sessions!
Anything by King Gizzard & The Lizzard Wizard
I mean, I like kgatlw, but they’re not that unique
