Candiria - The Process of Self-Development

I caught my first glimpse of Candiria through their set at the March Metal Meltdown. Completely impressed with their off-kilter approach to some grinding death (complete with stop/start beats and an off-time feel to the whole thing), I immediately ordered their first two albums. It was then that I discovered that Candiria live and Candiria on record are two completely different entities. Where live the band eschewes most of their jazz elements and concentrates on the sick, twisted and heavy material they have, their recordings find the band in a much more experimental frame of mind. Now, this is pretty cool, but it does break the flow sometimes, while at moments achieving pure brilliance. They succeed in melding all of their many influences, but I find myself skipping whole tracks at times. But, of course, this makes the insane grind parts that much heavier, and had the entire album consisted of them, the impact would have been diminished. But, in a nutshell, this is the problem I'm having with The Process of Self-Development, totally digging the older songs that are redone here (Temple of Sickness, Elevate in Madness) along with Mathematics and some other things. What I'm not liking is the heavily pervasive rap element, which just smacks of the Beastie Boys for some reason. Regardless, Candiria are a band that I can allow a few deviations from, for when they hit it, it's dead on. Plus, the band is comprised of stellar musicians, especially the multi-talented Kenneth Schalk, who decimates his drums with the greatest of ease. This is from Brooklyn though, and while I don't like it, the rap sections do make some sense. It's just a bit too mainstream for my liking... Final analysis? It's not straight metal, The Process... deviating even further from the main paradigm, but if you want to hear some jazzed out fusion metal, these are the kings. Postscript: I guess that certain aspects of rap can be viewed as a modern extension of jazz in the 70s, both beginning as a musical outlet for individuals in the urban areas, it's just not my choice of stimulation. Much respect for this band though, and I look forward to their impending world domination.