Starting off with strange horror sounds, bursting into heavy metal riffing and drumming, nice breaks and solid melodies one of the first things to notice is that the production of “Characters” the debut album by Freak Neil Inc (the new project from Sun Caged bassist Rob van der Loo), could have been cleared from a thin layer of dust. The sound is too low, slightly restricting the dynamic range; strange since no one else than Joost van den Broek was responsible.

What I like is the variation within tracks, the use of laid back distorted guitars as an intersection and the intense vocals of the opening track. On the negative side some of the interconnection sections aren’t as convincing as they should be, unbalancing some of the tracks. The jazzy parts gluing together “I’m The Chair” for example don’t go down that well.

Absolute mad are the beats and the distorted vocals of the fourth track, this is one that will take some time to get used to, but is in fact superb, the best track on the album and alone worth checking out this album. “Beyond The Garden” is another absolute highlight with extraordinarily vocals of Irene Jansen (Star One) and very intense atmospheric, almost hypnotizing melodies.

“Characters” is an exploration of different parts of the music scene and therefore an excellent title for the album. I would call this experimental metal project dark, raw, loud and weird, but most of all original and even better: inspiring! This one will certainly make a major impact on the most progressive minds among us.