Over
the years there are many examples of high-class forward thinking death metal bands,
Death and Atheist were perhaps two of the
main pioneers, however modern death metal bands such as Ulcerate continue to innovate. For
me a true innovator is Ron Jarzombek (his legacy needs to introduction), I mean
the guy should be a friggin’ legend by now and his instrumental death metal project
Blotted Science,
featuring Alex Webster of Cannibal
Corpse fame,
is full of mathy time signature, abstract guitar godliness and outright brutlality,
which segues us nicely to emerging instrumental death metal duo Fermentor whose musical chemistry is
one of the best to emerge from scene.
Whilst
not as jaw droppingly technical at Blotted Science, Fermentor’s
compositions dares to defy listeners expectations of what instrumental
metal can be and after experimenting on two EPs and a demo, the duo are finally
ready to drop their first full-length, entitled “Continuance” and
enter the fray once more.
Kicking
off the album is “The Stench” and there’s no hanging around as riffs
whizz past like bullets and the drums fire off into hyper-speed. Guitarist Adam
Wollach’s blend of styles is fascinating: at parts it draws from Dysrhythmia and Behold...the Arctopus in all their tech-death
glory; in others there are hints of the extreme end of thrash à la Revocation; further
still, there is moments of jazzy fusion to throw the listener off the scent,
before the track then dives back into technical chaos. Drummer Dylan Marks is ferocious and
relentless on his kit as he blasts and rolls, though naturally there are plenty
of more technical moments to dazzle as well.
“Continuance”
will undoubtedly be of interest to all who appreciate forward-thinking music of
a technical and progressive nature. Fermentor
have struck the ball out of the park on this one, and it is guaranteed
to garner them a lot of attention. The album drops on June 12th and you can check out the outrageous video for
“The Stench” below
