Where does reality end and where does it begin? And who, or what, decides this? Multinational experimental black metal enigma ???? (Sleepwalker) ripropose this question to us via their masterful fourth album "Skopofoboexoskelett", an enigmatic and playfully formulaic quandary of deconstructed visionary counter-music reminding us a simple concept: that reality is dictated by perception, and as such, by manipulating perception (via the arts), any reality is not only possible but also valid. And as is always the tradition with ????, music is the alchemical key via which questions are raised and answers are found in the labyrinth of history, culture, lore and world traditions. In the case of "Skopofoboexoskelett", an exploration of the notions of self-reflection, intuition, phobia, luck, and failure in the context of the evil eye, its historical, cultural, physical and metaphysical meanings, as well as its psychological effects, carefully unraveled and revealed. Within this paradigm "Skopofoboexoskelett" takes ????'s vision, agenda, and intents, further than ever before, with musical boundaries shattered, definitions pulverized, genres, styles and aesthetics ridiculed into a masterful sensorial manipulation which draws the listener into the deceptive and subversive absurdity that is their own perception being stimulated in unprecedented ways. Drawing their own line and dictating the guidelines of music's end as we know it, ???? use their unique sonic idealizations made of lysergic black metal excoriations, kraut, psych, noise rock, world music, improvised deconstructionism and schizoid free jazz to transcend conscience and reason, devastate the senses (particularly the auditory one) and open the mind unto a new plane of perception of which the only logic is illogicality, as only true and unquestionable experimental arts dictate and demand.
