out August 14: Fermentor

Words are overrated. Just ask Fermentor. No vocals, no lyrics, just the music. Fermentor consists of the drumming by Dylan Marks and the guitar by Adam Wollach. That's it. Let the blasting, thrashing begin. The release date for the album Continuance is August 14th, 2020, but six out of the ten songs are streaming now at Bandcamp. This music is for fans of extreme metal. This is not an experimental band, even though the official information below may lead some people to believe that. This is headbanging metal, basically death metal without vocals, and without lots of sugary melodies. If you like thrash and death, and you want to hear that music without a person yelling over the music, this is a chance to experience that.

There are many cases of high-class musical chemistry, but that of Dylan Marks and Adam Wollach is one of the best to emerge from the packed San Diego scene. Fermentor, their longest running partnership, is a band that dares to defy listeners expectations of what instrumental metal can be. After experimenting on two EPs and a demo, the duo are finally ready to announce their first full-length, entitled Continuance, ready to enter the fray once more.

Kicking off on “The Stench”, there’s no hanging around as riffs whizz past like bullets and the drums fire off into hyper-speed. 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 moments of jazzy fusion (such as on “Thunderboss”) to throw the listener off the scent, before the track then dives back into technical chaos. Meanwhile, 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. As is tradition, Continuance contains a film sample, this time a playful reference to UK show Peep Show that sets the tone for the ominous “Project Zeus” as the two guys barrel on through the finish line.

One thing that is constant, however, is the steady improvement across each release in the audio quality. Continuance sounds sharp and crisp in no small part due to Wollach’s production work - aided by Dale Holland at K St Recordings and Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, and this is one contributing factor to the record’s high level of replayability.

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.

Continuance by Fermentor