There's shoegaze black metal, there's symphonic metal, there's folk metal, there's pop metal . . . and plenty more. Jasmeno's leader and songwriter Slavomir Nietupski incorporates more influences than just about anyone in creating the sound palette for his band.

Jasmeno Assemblage of Cinematic Idioms (self-released)

In general, this falls into the technical and orchestral arenas, but each of the lengthy pieces on this album wanders far afield. To go way old school, a Tiamat moment slides into an Edge of Sanity moment, at which point ten seconds of Sisters of Mercy-ish goth rock segues into something completely different. Doom is the overwhelming sentiment, but even the most hopeless song is haunted by a possible respite.

Does it all make sense? Not always within any individual song. But the band suggests treating the album as an art show, something that must be appreciated as a whole. And that does work better. There are transcendent moments in each piece that connect to other pieces more than they do within their own work. This might trouble short attention span listeners or those who like to be spoon fed, but taking extra time to truly experience something as epochal as this will pay off.

I'm sure plenty of folks will find this far too disjointed and just plain whacked out. I get it. Those who are willing to bathe in excess ought to find pleasure within. And anyone who wants to hear musical connections heretofore unexplored will be delighted. Totally batshit in the best way imaginable.

Jon Worley