4 out of 5

Label: Troubleman Unlimited / Vothoc

Producer: Colin Marston

I’m realizing – as many probably have – that I love Colin Marston, and I’m totally down for wankery widdley waggley finger tapping drum rat-tat-tattin’ machine gunned bassline instrumental badassery, but… there is such a thing as too much.  I followed Colin from Dysrhythmia to here, and if you’re on a similar path, you’ll immediately recognize his precise and yet loose style of forever soloing on his guitar/bass Warr guitar thing cut in with quick riffs.  But whereas Dys backed him up with a generally metal sensibility, grounding all the guitar heroics with rocking out, the aim of Arctopus is to get rid of all that chord nonsense and just go intensely technical with everything.

But it’s like the difference between Dys’ Pretest and Barriers album, the former being a bit more wandering and the latter beating you over the head, but both lacking in a groove you can really just get in to – you’re awed by what these dudes are pulling off, but it’s hard to put on the band’s t-shirt and jump around because it’s more of an experience than a set of songs.  Crank that feeling up to 99 and you get Arctopus.  Even over the course of this short EP – even with a 3 minute pause in the middle for some droney washes of sound – it’s a bit much to take in.  It doesn’t stop.  And your parents might cover their ears, but this isn’t exactly metal – it’s so intricate in execution and composition, unlike the millions of bands who claim to have brought in a ‘classical’ influence to whatever album, you believe it with Arc.

Does this not sound glowingly positive?  Well, sure, I’d probably be hard-pressed to ‘recognize’ a song of this album and be able to say with certainty ‘ah yes, Sensory Amusia from the Cyborg Summoning EP,’ but I listened to this god damned thing for hours non-stop.  It’s not abrasive to the ear, and it’s actually more ‘musical’ than Dysrhythmia since it’s not trying to rock out.  Everything syncs up, builds and bridges.  The same song sounds different the second time through and the third time through, even when you know what to expect.  So it IS, truly, quite the experience.

Perhaps buy the re-released version of this EP that has other tracks on it.  Womp womp.