Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Frontierer - Orange Mathematics (2015)
You know how much I enjoy metalcore, including its chaotic noise-powered subgenre mathcore, including bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan and Converge. Dissonant guitars grind through complex rhythms and everchanging time signatures in a fast heavy hurricane. Frontierer is another great example of that sound in this 15-track 48-minute journey, twice as long as albums from the more underground bands of the genre. And let me tell you, they've done it quite well.
Frontierer arrived in the mathcore scene shortly after the demise of Tennessee's The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza. I've really enjoyed that band's djenty mathcore sound for the past couple years, and I thought, "What would they sound like if they didn't split up?" Here's the answer! Though the greatness is not entirely the same...
Heading straight to the action is opening track "Bunsen" with tons of noisy distortion in a catchy fashion. Then "Cascading Dialects" just goes on like a huge breakdown, almost threatening to be filler, but there's still some slight variety to keep things up and running. Favorite "The Collapse" is a re-recording of a track from its self-titled EP, and is filled with extreme chaos and devastating riff-wrath. You just gotta hear it to believe it! "Digital Tarpit" is sick as f***, with riffing heavy enough to put even deathcore bands like Whitechapel to shame. "Tunnel Jumper" stands out with melodic guitar in the second half to lighten things up a bit after all that riffing fury. Sure it may turn off some of the heavier mathcore fans, but it's what they gotta expect.
"Helium Vat" has some repetition in the riffing which makes it clear that the album isn't entirely perfect. "Bleak" is another incredible example of mathcore's slash-and-dash chaos. What also works out well is the intermission "IALCCA". While having a more electronic sound, it greatly displays the Converge-like screams of Chad Kapper. An effective way into the next track... Some sections are more layered than others in "Delorean Trails". Then we have another favorite in "Time Disruption Footprint", and HOLY F***ING SH*T, that midsection breakdown if practically heavier than anything I've heard in my life!
"Exposure & Aperture" has powerful riff groove as progressive and deathly as Extol and Into Eternity without actually sounding like those bands. "Evil Dermis" is good but not that memorable. "Mt. Swath" is never a disappointment. The rage from the bass and downtuned guitars can pack some punches even in the lowest mix. "Crystal Turbine" definitely screams TDEP and early Burst in gut-wrenching chaos. The closing track "Dusk" is the ultimate closing epic of chaos that then fades out into ambience.
All in all, Orange Mathematics shall give you some great mathcore entertainment. There's just so much power in a moderately long album length without tapping out. Most fans of music, even metal, would forfeit this chaotic run, but not me! Sh*t-tons of insanity are afoot to take the mathcore scene to the next level....
Favorites: "Bunsen", "The Collapse", "Tunnel Jumper", "Bleak", "Time Disruption Footprint", "Mt. Swath", "Dusk"