Band:	Albino Slug
Album:	Albino Slug
Style:	Experimental metal, Avantgarde metal
Website:	http://no website
Release date:	1993
Guest review by:	Roman Doez

01. Knrr 8
02. Thorbud
03. Du Må Ikke Sove
04. Bring Water / Skinner Boxed (The Wavering Solipsist)
05. Vaffel
06. Bleeding
07. Paradise Regained

The world is full of surprises. I stumbled upon one of these surprises on a fateful day in December, searching for some old avantgarde metal and retracing the genre's roots, naturally having a look at what the 90's had to offer in that domain. That's how I found that one name that instantly caught my eyes: Albino Slug.

Hailing from Norway and not playing something remotely close to black metal in 1993 is already quite impressive, but that's not the only thing differentiating Albino Slug from the rest of the metal scene, far from it. You see, to earn that "avantgarde" title, you've got to be at least somewhat unique and do something new, and they do not fail in that category, by quite a margin. I'll go ahead and say there's not any musical equivalent to Albino Slug; they were so early with their style in the avantgarde landscape that no one followed them, which makes this album just this more intriguing.

Their sound is quite hard to describe: is it doomy with some electronic touches? Is it pure experimental electronics? Is it some "wtf" kind of avantgarde? Well it's all of this at once, and that's one of the areas where the album shines the most: it's quite diverse, while still staying in its unique and recognizable style. I honestly don't really know how they got to incorporate all these odd elements; the scene wasn't really the most leaning towards that at the time, so it's quite a surprise that they were struck with that inspiration.

Just looking at the album, the first thing you see is that cover art. It's such a mesmerizing artwork, showing weird creatures and an oddly colored landscape; just by looking at it, you're transported to a weird world, potentially of the prehistoric kind, and are already prepared for all the weirdness that's to come. I'd honestly rank it among my very favorite cover arts of all time. It might not seem like the most important element, but the cover art makes your mental representation of the album, what you expect of it, and as such it's an interesting thing to talk about.

There are only seven tracks here, ranging from 2 minutes for the shortest to 19 for the longest, and honestly, I see myself coming back to every single one of them; they're all, quite frankly, both amazing and weird at the same time, which might be where my fascination for them comes from. The one I listened to the most is most likely "Vaffel"; it's the fastest, most dynamic (not to say the other ones aren't dynamic, of course), and probably the weirdest one in there. It devolves into pure chaos and I'm in love with it. Another very notable track is the 19-minute-long one, the closer: "Paradise Regained". It takes a direction completely contrary to the rest of the album, not including anything remotely close to rock or metal. It's just a pure weird electronic-ish track, it's very hypnotic and the near-20 minutes go by pretty quickly.

After this album was released, there was the excellent EP Barabbas, and then nothing. The band simply vanished. Not only did they not make any more music, but they also disappeared from the collective memory, no one remembers them, and that's quite a shame considering the gems they left us with. I hope this review piqued your curiosity, so that hopefully someone else discovers the wonderful Albino Slug.