ALBUM REVIEW: Continuance – Fermentor
Initially forming as MATANZAA all the way back in 2008, San Diego’s FERMENTOR feature two of the more talented musicians within the cities crowded underground scene. With a sound comprising of only guitars and drums, and on the strength of a demo and two EP’s, the band have garnered a respectable reputation for making hard, intricate and technical death thrash, creating some great music that many bands wouldn’t even come close to producing even with a full ensemble. The band’s long awaited debut album, Continuance, is the culmination of over a decade of musical collaboration, and looks set to establish the band on a much wider stage.
The Stench is a really impressive start to the record, providing a great piece of death thrash with some notably eerie, disjointed moments that only serve to make this song sound all the more intense. It makes an incredibly solid piece of music that draws the listener in and raises expectations fairly high. Thunderboss, with it’s tighter, more prominent drum sound, is an absolute juggernaut, with fast, ferocious guitar carving through the mix, providing an excellent counterpoint to the frenzied nature of the drums. Much like the last song, there’s plenty of changes in tone and timing, which keeps this song unpredictable to the very last note.
Mechanism is a slower, groove-laden affair, with dense, chugging rhythmic hooks and energetic drumming giving this a much stronger thrash sound. A few sparse, demented flourishes from the guitar give this a more dizzying, chaotic feel at specific points, adding a jarring, dissonant quality to the music. The Decay of Western Society retains the bleak, brooding elements from the previous track, with a much more focused, intense guitar sound giving this a razor sharp feel, littered with slick, caustic melodies that add a virtuosic edge to the music. It may be a relatively brief offering, but it packs a solid punch.
Seventh Circle, another short sharp shock of a song, has a more visceral side to its sound, notably with more grating chords and thicker sounding riffs injecting a lot of life and character into this particular track, lending a monstrous, progressive aspect to the music. Landbridge heads back down the death thrash route, with the guitars being noticeably more subdued at many points, allowing the drums to take centre stage, mixing intricate fills with much more rabid, primal moments, making for a bestial and immersive feel that it’s hard not to love. Cotterpin sees percussive blasts coupled with some really magnificent guitars, with much a much chunkier tone, with feral and imaginative riffs thrown liberally throughout, keeping this song interesting from start to finish.
Stage V adopts a classic death metal sound, with vicious leads and a weightier drum sound with some truly punishing moments giving this song a monolithic, visceral sound, standing as one of the album’s main highlights as a result. Cut N Shut, a blink and you’ll miss it pairing of robust, thrash hooks and savage, death metal trappings with the crashing drums that accompany this utilising cymbals far more, giving the percussion here a lighter, but powerful, sound. Project Zeus, with its slower, doom-laden intro, quickly expands into a much vaster, atmospheric motif, with a huge, expansive sound from both guitars and drums. The more measured approach actually aids this song, as it allows massive, discordant chords and booming drum parts to build a captivating sound, with some great licks adding a sense of urgency to the proceedings, providing an epic and climactic conclusion.
Continuance is a very good album that works very well despite its limited elements. For a band that produces instrumental music that consists solely of guitar and drums, it’s a surprising meaty and intricate album that has a lot of excellent music that sounds much larger than many bands with added vocals and bass would be able to achieve. Both Dylan and Adam clearly have great chemistry together as musicians, and know when to let one aspect of the bands sound take a more prominent role in the mix, making for a diverse and powerful sound overall. There’s a lot of great music here, and with a few minor tweaks, FERMENTOR could very well prove to be one of the more impressive death metal acts out there in years to come.
Rating: 8/10
Continuance is out now via self-release.
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