Released 2003 on Epicene Sound Systems.
Charlie Zeleny - lead drums
Mike Lerner - uranium-yellow nuclear guitar
Colin Marston - 12-string superguitar
http://www.peacedogman.com/Images/Be%20Amazed!.jpg
I've no idea what this ^ has to do with this band or this EP, except that it turned up in an image search on them.
There are a fair few things about this release to be amazed about, though. For a start, be amazed by the stupidity of the various names which seem to abound about it.
Once you're over that, check out the line up given. God knows why "lead drums". I think the uranium-yellow nuclear guitar is just a bright yellow guitar, which is okay. The 12-string superguitar is something else entirely though; a [url=http://homepages.nyu.edu/%7Ecjm246/DSC00292_1.JPG]Warr guitar[/url], to be precise. To those who are perhaps put off by the lack of a listed bassist, don't be; Colin Marston - a bassist by trade, I think (he just recently signed on as bassist for another, slightly better known technical metal act, Dysrhythmia) - plays both bass and guitar parts, on his magical hyperfutureguitarbass. Also, if you get time, be amazed at Marston's hair and frequent metal posing (pictures available at [url]www.beholdthearctopus.com[/url] - for some reason I can't get links to them to show you).
Finally, be amazed at the music. In an era where the area of unbelieveably technical music is being broached by an ever-growing number of bands (most notably, at least as far as I'm concerned, Spastic Ink), what these three guys do isn't dramatically novel any more. That doesn't stop it being more than worth listening to. If you want solid riffs though, forget it. Practically all of the 11 minutes of musc here are made up of choppy, switching twiddliness, with something, if not everything, soloing. Normally that kind of thing would annoy me, but they throw in snippets of riffs every now and then, which keeps me interested, and the music has unifying melodies and rhythms, which do so as well. There's also, obviously (from the name and so on), a tongue in cheek humour to everything they do, which puts them in a similar area to Ron Jarzombek and Steve Vai, in so far as attitude.
This is why it's worth listening to; what Behold.. the Arctopus are doing is no longer particularly revolutionary, but it's done well, which is still something rare in this field. Of course, this is only a short EP, and is entirely vocal-less. It remains to be seen whether they have the real talent which it takes to make a good album in this style (as Spastic Ink and Canvas Solaris have), or whether they're suited to sticking with 11 minutes at a time. The near future holds only another EP, I think, charmingly entitled
Nano-Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning, so I don't think we're getting answers soon. If this is what you like, though, Behold.. the Arctopus should be worth keeping an eye on.
3.4/5
