Purveyors of the finest "Mothercore," the Swiss group IN LOVE YOUR MOTHER unleash all kinds of sonic hell on unsuspecting ears with their new album, "The Great Ape Project."

The band, hailing from Zürich, combines riffs and tempo changes of dizzying complexity with the savageness of hardcore punk; the best comparison I can think of is DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN. "The Mother Song" manages to fit in three or four riffs (and a short breakdown, for good measure), not bad for the first 30 seconds of the album. More than half of the album is composed of similar sub-1 minute tracks, all with completely unique vibes of their own that segue neatly into the next song. The frenzied riffing of "21161916" is one such example, paving the way for "We're Gonna Dance Till Everyone Is Naked And Fallen Apart." Things go from bruising to subdued in the blink of an eye, mellowing out for good towards the middle of the song.

The song structures, or rather, the structure of the entire album is about as varying and unpredictable as each the music itself, but their approach is still direct enough to limit the amount of potential listener confusion.  The band members deserve a lot of credit for making such a complex album without sacrificing much in listenability. "Signs Of A Medium Life" seethes with metallic fury, while the band finds themselves at their most challenging and diverse on the fantastic pair of "Wish Me An Ocean" songs. From peaceful, classical-sounding melodies to rhythm-punctuated riffs of startling intensity, it's about as well rounded a musical experience as one is likely to find within the Metal genre.  And If that wasn't enough, "Drop The Back Of The Line" counterpoints the preceding madness with minute of solo piano before the listener is thrown back into the fire with the heavy, grooving "Signs Of A Real Life."

"The Disco Fish" may take the cake as far as variety goes on "The Great Ape Project," however. It's still pretty heavy and technical throughout, but the tempo is very up-beat and poppy, kind of like a KILLERS song; except, way more Metal sounding, of course.

"The Great Ape Project" is a wild ride and a winner on all fronts, an engaging record that's both heavy and technical as well as accessible (as far as Extreme Metal goes, anyway). Intelligently written and well performed by all the musicians, I'd highly recommend "The Great Ape Project" to fans of Extreme Metal and Metalcore alike.