Review Summary: “As your head splits open with your thoughts now broken”
“As your head splits open with your thoughts now broken”
Scottish/American metalcore/mathcore band Frontierer got mostly positive but mixed feedback from listeners after the release of their second album, Unloved, in 2018. While some loved how the band stuck to its core sound of mathcore mayhem, others were displeased. Some wanted more experimentation while some simply wanted the album to be shorter. Though there were a few instances of exciting expansions of songwriting on Unloved, like in sludge-crusher Electric Gag, industrial/electronic Heartless 101, and emotional Unloved and Oxidized, it does not change the fact that the other 80% of the album followed very similar structures in terms of song length and progression. After three long years of waiting for Frontierer’s third LP, it is finally here. How much has the band changed since then?
The opener, Heirloom, starts out as all Frontierer albums start: exceptionally heavy and intimidating, like a train that is just barely still on the rails. Fading in with chilling, stalking guitars there is a brief moment of peace before a stampede of aggression knocks the wind out of you. The chorus, while maybe not heavier than anything on the previous two albums, has an element of tension due to the quivering, unsettling guitars. Vocalist Chad Kapper is every bit as energetic and furious as he has ever been, if not more.
Corrosive Wash follows in the same vein as the opener. An absolutely ridiculous amount of noise is thrown at you before it slows down a little bit and chugs boisterously. Kapper’s vocals have never sounded more confident. He knows how to fight against and with the instruments at the right times. The song develops at the last minute to include an electronic-industrial section that would remind you of something off of Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero album.
Opaque Horizon, one of the two singles from the album, bombards you with laser sounds before slowing down a little and having a catchy, deathcore-like chorus that is a nice change of pace. The last half of the song reminds me of a few tracks from Orange Mathematics in that a progressive metal element is touched upon in the outro, instead of just ending the song with more glitches and time shifts that occur frequently on Frontierer songs.
The fourth track, Death /, has an unconventional groove in the intro before it catapults into a rhythm of oscillating rising and falling, both with the guitars and Kapper’s voice. The groove comes back again at the end, but even heavier and more frantic. Disintegrative does not have anything that makes it stand out too much, other than it just being heavy and liberally using pedals and effects that make it sound as if aliens are entering Earth and they are very angry.
This Magnetic Drift shines vocally and lyrically, through both Kapper and Will Haven’s Grady Avenell:
“This magnetic drift
Takes me to where I belong
Below the dark abyss
To the depths where I exist “
and:
“Bury me
Drifting free
Bury me up to my throat now please”
Kapper writes the vast majority of his lyrics in a combination of poetry forms, but he isn’t afraid to make some bold choices like putting lyrics in certain places that most probably would not. His lyrics are vague enough to be open to some interesting interpretations but also biting and direct when they need to be.
The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza influence is apparent in LK WX followed immediately by Southern Hemorrhage. The former harkens back to the soundscape/interludes that were abundant on Danza IV with its simple but heavy chugging while the latter is a collection of stupidly-heavy, fun riffs that will make you want to run through walls.
Another shift occurs in the album with SVVANS, a song that showcases the increased drum and bass/electronic elements most explicitly out of all songs on the album. Kapper distantly screams over thick jungle beats until the electronic elements kick into a higher gear and it sounds like you are listening to a witch-house song. This shift works great in the album to keep your attention. The drum and bass elements were used in only one song on Orange Mathematics, an interlude titled IALCCA, and mostly used as short transitions on songs on Unloved. Stereopticon has perhaps the scariest-sounding sequences on the album, with screeching guitars dueling the second half of the song till it feels like your head is going to split (but in a good way). Removal of the Copper Iris and the Lightning Pill (featuring Ion Dissonance) is a solid short, song that is probably the most forgettable on the album but still properly slaps when it comes on.
Motherboard, Daydark, and Glacial Plasma are the strongest three-track stretch on the album.
Motherboard features a little bit of the best of everything on the album: an interesting hook, an extended dnb section that builds up the anticipation, and a suffocating wall of sound reminiscent of the band’s first breakout song, Bleak, reminding me why I love this band in the first place.
Daydark starts out as most songs do on the album, but a minute in abruptly goes into a beautiful, melancholy riff that goes on for a minute while an aggressive drum beat and Kapper’s screaming lay on top of it. It works surprisingly well, though it does catch you off guard. Not long after however the song kicks back into gear, but slowed and more poised than before.
Glacial Plasma, the first promotional single to be released, is a showcase of Oxidized’s schizophrenic style. Both Valiani and Kapper work tirelessly to fit in as many confrontational noises as possible in just three and a half minutes. It is disorienting because every time you get the feel of one part of the song it instantaneously changes to something else.
Penultimate song, The Damage and the Sift, has an ear-piercing hook that makes you think the song could go many directions, but unfortunately the rest of the song does not quite live up to the hook. Not a bad song by any means, but at this point in the album it does not really stick out that much, except for the last minute that is quite pleasing where the song comes together again with the original hook in a better way. Album closer /Hope is a perfect conclusion to the album. Glitchy noises abound the first minute while the second half builds to a powerful, inspiring culmination of screaming and guitars before abruptly cutting out, making sure that you never get too much of Frontierer’s softer side.
Though it feels like there is no breathing room in the album, in fact it mostly feels like you are drowning or being waterboarded in sound, there are a few standout moments that should be mentioned:
Stereopitcon’s sequence where Kapper screams with all his might:
“Cut me down, but never watch me bleed
Oxidize my wounds and hear me breathe”,
Daydark’s soft detour and Heirloom’s impossibly-escalating, enduring brutality are all worth checking out if you are at all curious about what kinds of things are on this album.
Call them the Nine Inch Tony Meshuggah Car Bomb Plan if you want, but Frontierer is innovating consistently as a band and each new release breeds anticipation for the next one. Though more softer and experimental sequences and songs would be welcome in future releases (and clean vocals!), the ones here counterbalance the obscenely relentless heaviness well. Valiani has talked about how he wants the band to change its sound naturally and without rush, and he seems to be doing just that. There are noticeable changes and interesting directions that are being explored more, but at his own chosen pace. Though there will inevitably be complaints about the length of the album (16 tracks and just shy of 50 minutes) few bands at the moment are delivering the rush that a Frontierer album brings.
Recommend Songs: Heirloom, Southern Hemorrhage, Motherboard, Daydark, Glacial Plasma
