The Fourth Discontinuity

Sisthema's down-tuned metal tantrums marry the bowel-rattling sub-bass frequencies and dissonant guitar squawks of post-Korn metal with Fear Factory's "technology is the end of humanity" doomsayer lyrics. The Fourth Discontinuity, as its title promises, is a conceptually ambitious album, owing a debt to similarly themed past classics like Rush's 2112 and Queensryche's Rage for Order -- it's nu-metal with brains. Fortunately the lyrics are provided, otherwise one would have no idea that vocalist Massimo Pirazzoli was screaming words like "logarithmic," "transmigration," and "malformed unnatural aberration." Musically, it's tuneless, atonal, adrenalized aggression, but played expertly. The creepy ambient textures of the mostly instrumental "The X-Stasy and the Eclipse of the Flesh" -- including an imaginatively placed saxophone -- are a nice touch. Well done, if not terribly original or distinctive.