On Heavy International, the Chicago-based trio The Eternals continues their exploration into the genre-bending sounds that they have formulated since the first of their two previous albums. The group's claim to fame, and their favorite piece of PR seems to be their affinity to collecting incredibly abstract sounds and seeing how they can be worked into their music.

Heavy International not only embraces this maxim of experimentation in sound, but takes it to the point where the album becomes almost unclassifiable. The only way to look at an album as eclectic as Heavy International is from the ground up, from note to song and song to album.

The instruments on the album, each more unusual than the next from synthesizer to vibraphone, are quite compelling on their own. Looking at the bass lines throughout the album alone, you'll find a rhythm and complexity that rival the hardest funk music. On the first reggae-infused track on the album, the aptly-titled "The Mix Is So Bizarre," the bass line looms steadily while strange synthesizers and confusing vocal barks comfortably surround the underlying rhythms.

Not unexpectedly, the vocals are far from consistent throughout the album. As on "The Mix Is So Bizarre," vocalist Damon Locks is prone to use chants, screams and whispers within the same song. On other songs, such as the subdued "Remove Ya," the vocal style could be described as a mix of Jim Morrison of The Doors, Brad Nowell of Sublime and Caleb Guillotte of the 90s band Deadeye Dick. The rest of the tracks on the album prove to be just as varied and it would take pages to describe them further through comparisons.

The title track of the album may provide the most varied instrumentation and vocals of them all. Other than the bass line of the song, no other instrument remains constant throughout the 5:59 of music. The vocals, however, keep up a continuous monotone of spoken-word structure that resembles more of a voiceover for a commercial than lyrics to a song.

Beginning from the ground up, the notes fail to create a coherent, unified song. The jump from song to album also fails due to similar reasons.

It is this lack of continuity in the songs that creates the album's greatest downfalls. The inclusion of such a varied collection of sounds, however, seems to be the goal of the band on Heavy International, as exemplified by their joy in being dubbed "untaggable."

The problem for The Eternals lies not within the bending of genres, but rather the ignoring of genres altogether. It is not always desirable to be completely genre-free as a musical group. In the case of The Eternals, the complex meshing of sounds on each song can turn negatively by detracting from the song as a whole. In the aforementioned "Heavy International," each sound is incredibly unique and compelling on its own, but when forced into the context of the song, it asserts itself in a pointless struggle for sonic power between the percussion, synth, bass, vocals and radio voices. Rather than forming a collage of sounds that contribute to the greater whole, each part is so distinct from the other that the listener wonders why they were brought together to begin with.

Each song sets itself apart from the previous song in such a strong way that it is difficult to realign as a listener to a totally new sound. In the case of the transition from the Twilight Zone-sounding synthesizer loop of "It's Later than You Think (PT. 1 &2)" to the melodica-based "Scorpion" that follows, the change is so drastic that it's hard to believe the songs belong to the same band. This effect makes the overall rhythm and flow of the album jagged and jarring.

The bass lines and the awkwardly comforting voice that reappears throughout the album saying "you are now listening to Heavy International," seem to be the only points of continuity in the album. Both are welcome, the bass for its stoicism, the voice for reminding the listener that he or she is in fact listening to the same album.

There are some songs on the album that do succeed in creating a strikingly different blend of sounds, such as "The Mix Is So Bizarre" and the hip-hop sounding "Patch of Blue." Unfortunately for The Eternals, though, the winning combination of sounds seems to happen by accident and only occasionally, making only a few memorable songs and a forgettable album.

Grade: 1.5 out of 5