Exotic Animal Petting Zoo - 2012 Tree of Tongues

Band : Exotic Animal Petting Zoo
Album : Tree of Tongues
Release Year : 2012
Genre : Experimental | Mathcore

Tracklist :
1. Pharmacokinetic
2. Thorough.Modern.
3. You Make Wonderful Pictures
4. Through the Thicket... Across Endless Mountains
5. M.U.M.B.
6. Apis Bull
7. The Great Explainer
8. Kaspar Hauser Could See the Stars in the Daytime
9. Gypsy Among the Pines
10. Whores of Babel
11. Arcology

The biggest problem with Exotic Animal Petting Zoo to date has been whether to take them seriously or not. With their outlandish name matched vibrantly with their song titles it was often disconcerting to put hope in a band that sang about “Richard Dean Anderson/One Is In Sheol, the Pit”. So with their sophomore album all (two or three) eyes were on the band to deliver something meaningful, something “fans” could legitimately defend. Well Tree of Tongues is here and nothing is answered but that may be the point. Tongues dives into a rabbit hole everyone was afraid to acknowledge, but many knew hid wonders. It envelops the listener almost immediately into a world only mad men live and is amplified by its stunning beauty. Though faults lay in its predictability and almost refusal to sneak back into the crazy song structures their debut was heralded for, Tongues mostly succeeds because, though normal in its appearance, it’s batshit fucking crazy. -controlled (sputnicmusic)

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Exotic Animal Petting Zoo - 2008 I Have Made My Bed in Darkness

Band : Exotic Animal Petting Zoo

Album : I Have Made My Bed in Darkness

Release Year : 2008

Genre : Experimental / Progressive / Mathcore

Tracklist :

1. Seeds
2. Anniversary Psalm
3. Hairdresser
4. A Balloon Enters Kyoto City
5. Moonshoes
6. Every Waking Moment
7. Richard Dean Anderson | One is in Sheol, the Pit 4:3
8. a) Translations
9. b) Curse of the Sands
10. These People Refuse to Believe that the Lake is Bottomless
11. Ira Lore
12. Arendering

Exotic Animal Petting Zoo is an experimental/prog/rock band from Crown Point, Indiana that was formed in 2004 by brothers Brandon and Stephen Carr. Their initial sound combines the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Smashing Pumpkins, Deftones, and Sigur Rós.

Now...Where to start? I'll admit this is a tough one for me to express with eloquence that effectively catches the magnitude of this band's sound, so forgive me if I go a bit overboard at any time.
But there's something to this band, henceforth EAPZ for my keyboard's sake. Something organic and raw about it all - but then equally polished and layered on the other end. They intertwine a whacky blend of grind-ish metal-core ish riffs, rarely heading into the chugga-chugga breakdowns but keeping it ball-bustingly heavy all the same. Though they are not the epitome of any particular branch of music, they are exceptionally talented musicians in the departments they embrace, achieving a bending, mind-twisting, cat-and-mouse chase of semi absurd genre changes.
But enough with the convoluted descriptions. The instrumentation on this album is excellent and worth describing. The base mirrors some of the guitar's most complex and fast riffs like on "B) Curse of the Sands" or "Hairdresser", only to jump into Chili Pepper-esque funky riffs on tracks like "Every Waking Moment." At no points did I feel it was filler, and always audible. The guitar, I would say, is the backbone here. How Brandon Carr plays and sings (very well, at that) live is somewhat baffling - more so than when Thomas Erak of The Fall of Troy is faced with his most involved moments. The brutal thrashy passages on this album are paced in such a way as being reminiscent of Dillinger in their early days, and I'd even make the stretch of comparing the softer passages to the likes of Radiohead (vocally, and this is a loose comparison) or The Mars Volta. Those who take a listen will probably find room to disagree in this respect, as its decidedly difficult to find valid comparisons for this concoction. 

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