FRONTIERER — Oxidized (review)

Album · 2021 · Mathcore

4/5 · 2021-10-08
siLLy puPPy

Mathcore is one of the ultimate extreme expressions of the metal universe by incorporating caustic jackhammer musical deliveries and fortifying them with brutal prog time signatures, unrelenting random breakdowns and dungeon torture vocals that must surely have torn a few lead vocalists throats to shreds. While an interesting subsection at the metal supermarket, mathcore also has the unfortunate attribute of possibly becoming very sterile and one-dimensional as a pummeling sonic haze sort of passes the listener by like an exploding warehouse of stored fireworks with everything happening to fast for the casual listener to comprehend.

That’s part of the appeal for me actually is that this style of music demands that you fixate your attention upon it like a pileup of motor vehicles in a bloody accident on the freeway. While it seems the supply of mathcore bands is endless, it’s actually one of the lesser roads travelled in the metal world due to the stamina and technical prowess required to perform such virtuosic wankery as well as the fact that this isn’t the biggest money maker in the world of music by attracting only the most hardcore and extreme noise addicts out there. True that this is not music i would play nonstop lest i lose my sanity however it certainly is a challenging and explosive type of cacophony that gets my juices flowing. Sort of like swallowing a whole bottle of niacin pills!

FRONTIERER is one of many mathcore bands out there these days. This band comes from Edinburgh, Scotland and formed in 2011. The band released its debut EP “The Collapse” in 2013 and then followed with two albums “Orange Mathematics” and Unloved” in 2015 and 2018. While following the standards of loud, abrasive djent fueled guitar riffing at mathcore speeds, FRONTIERER has pretty much remained a true underground noise making act that has caught on fire. Things have changed a bit with the band’s third album OXIDIZED released on Oct 1, 2021. While retaining all those mathcore elements that delivery orotund bombast and angst fueled complexities into a tapestry of dissonance, abstractness and surreality, FRONTIERER takes the genre into a slightly different arena than its competition.

Heavy as ever, OXIDIZE has corralled the frenetic loose electric wire in water effect randomness of many a mathcore band and created a more dare i say “mature” package of sixteen tracks that collectively blast the eardrums with over 49 minutes of uncompromising extreme core metal fury. What’s different about OXIDIZE from most it that it doesn’t mellow out the speed and agression to add all the other elements like bands like Converge and Botch have done. Rather it employs a form of glitch electronica to offer an equally chaotic electronic counterpoint as well as offering a few moments of melodic recesses from the otherwise manic madness that is unrelenting. Even within the most technically demanding speedcore meltdowns there are more variations in riffing styles, rhythmic drives and breakdowns.

Add to that there are even moments of downtempo with sort of rapped vocals. In many ways FRONTIERER has followed Between The Buried And Me with its lauded album “Colors” and simply adds more textures and timbres to an otherwise bleak core soundscape. While the general delivery is indeed like a nuclear bomb detonated on an unsuspecting city, the key moments of melodic touches and electronic extras provide just the perfect recipe to smooth things over enough to sweeten the bitter poison but make no mistake about it, FRONTIERER do not skimp on the extremities that make mathcore so violently repugnant to even most hardened metalheads. These guitar riffs sounds like they’re juggling electrons while the machine-gun rapid-fire blastbeats exhibit irregular but discernible carnage.

Oh yeah! The glitch electronica may sounds like a bad idea but it is used sparingly and as an equivalent to making an “ambient” accompaniment. In other words it’s an angry and equally chaotic counterpoint to the chaotic apocalyptic soundscape of a sonic battle in full force but given these extra sounds makes it sound more futuristic than most music in the core section of the metal supermarket. Thing of Car Bomb with The Prodigy and you’re on the right track. Fiery fueled mathcore with a futuristic touch and lead singer dude sounds a bit like a more manic version of Rage Against The Machine’s Zack de la Rocha at times! I like!