Review Summary: A soundtrack to anyones drug infused, hallucinogenic halloween.
Pinkly Smooth was a metal band from California. It was formed in 2001 by the now deceased, Jimmy Sullivan. The band only managed one release entitled; Unfortunate Snort. The main focus point of the band is Jimmy who was the drummer for Avenged Sevenfold, yes Avenged Sevenfold before his death. Most people really despise Avenged Sevenfold but if you can put your personal bias aside, you will be greeted with an extremely unique and original album.
The sound is one that can be described as "goblin rock," though it is really just a blend of punk, metal and avante-garde. The album itself just reeks of LSD, mushrooms and other hallucinogens (which might give a slight reason that Jimmy died so young). The production is that of a black-metal album, crunchy and unprofessional. This still doesn't detract from the music however. Jimmy utilizes growls, yelling, singing and some very odd spoken passages. Instrumentals are all superb and often driven by keyboard or just the frantic chaos that is the albums vocal work.
Songs like "Mezmer" are just full blown, halloween style chaos but still feature a somewhat bone-chilling keyboard throughout. "Pixel & Nazal" features some circus styled sounds and country guitar influences. The album is lyrically insane, as it just seems to go inside the seemingly crazy or genius mind of Jimmy Sullivan. "Mcfly" seems to be the "ballad" of the album and even it doesn't ever let up from the albums strangeness.
I honestly attribute this record as Syn Gates’ greatest success, because it shows off how versatile of a guitar player he can be. The guitar in each track always has some simple, heavy chords at some point, but then seems to break off into hellish themes, accompanied by the most demonic piano I’ve ever heard. At times, the guitar line will break off into a devil-circus sounding theme out of nowhere, and it will honestly just make you say “what the ***, style change much?” The piano on this record makes even more insane changes; for instance, on the track “Nosferatu Does a Hefty Dance” the song breaks into a ho-down with the Sullivan wailing something about demons. The biggest sonic surprise on this record, however, is the bass. I would have never expected prog basslines out of anything that the members of Avenged Sevenfold touched, but really, there’s some impressive groove going on here. Most of the basslines vary from the guitar lines, and they truly carry the song, along with the piano.
Unfortunate Snout is an album you really owe a listen to, especially with Halloween just around the corner. If a drug infused, schizophrenic and heavy album is what you're looking for then that is exactly what you'll get.
