Exotic Animal Petting Zoo
I Have Made My Bed In Darkness
6.4
Exotic Animal Petting Zoo have thrown their hat into the experimental post-metal fray with the epic I Have Made My Bed In Darkness, and it’s a promising opening statement from this band out of Crown Point, Indiana. First song “Seeds” is an eight-minute ride covering everything from screamed vocals and post-DEP workouts to mellow ambient sections and full-on melodramatic rock. Get through all of it and you’re likely to appreciate the ambitious experimentalism that follows. The softer aspects of EAPZ’s sound are noteworthy, as evidenced by songs like “A Balloon Enters Kyoto City” and “Every Waking Moment” which contain the sort of beautiful aerial passages we’ve come to expect from Isis, Red Sparowes and their ilk. The vocals are another impressive aspect of this band, with lead throat Brandon Carr’s impressive clean pipes making for a pleasant change from the one-dimensional growling of many like-minded acts.
Sadly, I Have Made My Bed In Darkness becomes dull after the halfway mark, with too many songs dragging on for longer than they should. With the exception of the rather excellent “Ira Lore,” a lack of direction kills off most of the momentum EAPZ manage to build. The various stylistic shifts sound too disjointed and end up passing right over you. It’s a shame really as most of the songs contain at least one excellent part at some point. But, it’s early days for these guys. Exotic Animal Petting Zoo have a killer album in them I'm sure, but this isn’t it. I Have Made My Bed In Darkness is overlong, overwrought and simply lacks the cohesiveness and tension required to make something like this stick. Hopefully the band will reign in some of their current looseness and deliver a more focused effort next time. For now though, I’d be sticking to Between the Buried and Me for this type of racket.
