Album Review: Fermentor - Agreement
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
This is another new one for me, and boy was I glad to pick this one up. What a creative masterpiece this is from Dylan Marks on drums and Adam “Wolly” Wollach on guitar. It’s a full instrumental album, that plays with different layers and textures, so much so, that your head is on a permanent swivel. The duo rely on rhythm and melody, and they are pushing the boundaries of what can be done with two instruments, defying genres and stereotypes of what music can be.
The opening noise that hits you on “Wintry Flesh” sounds close to a swarm of bees burying themselves inside your brain. The relentless assault on your senses continues, as the instrumental track batters away at your head, and resistance is deemed pointless. The barrage doesn’t stop, as “Whisper Flesh” draws on some potent death metal riffs and spikey grooves, to keep the tempo moving, which changes to a more progressive sound on the intense and impressive “Dead Farm”.
There’s so much going on within the music that you must digest it bit by bit to make sure that you don’t miss anything. You get a slow, more melodic tale at the start of “Ceratops” which creates tension and mood and sounds like an angry predator awakening from its slumber. I love the random chaos of “More Than Eight” as the music has more layers than an onion, before “Ghost Girl” dives into the post rock world with cracking solos and smooth grooves.
The compositions are impressive, with the rawness of their music captured beautifully. Each imperfection is laid out in front out you as they delve into the world of improvisation to see what happens. “Roach God” is a prime example of this, and you can hear so much of what defines the duo on this track. It’s a belter of a tune, that messes with your head, but shows what can be done when two people think, “fuck it, lets jam and see what happens”.
“Rotted” sees the death metal sound return, with Marks giving that double kick drum getting a bit of a pounding, which I love to hear. The song is over far too quickly for my liking, but you soon forget, as you are taken off onto another journey with the jaunty, and powerful sounds of “Deactivated”. The song is built around rhythm, and you feel in parts that it’s messy and disarranged, however it’s twisted around a solo from Wollach that is well worth listening to.
The song lengths are nice and varied, with short bursts of madness like “Agreement”, “Human Caterpillar” and the heaviness of “Transgression” complementing others like “There With That” and the introspective “Hides Behind Hands” as they invite you to challenge the perception of what music is. They are pushing boundaries, seeing what soundscapes work and don’t work together, to compose an array of songs that will get you thinking hard about the way we attach bands to genres of music.
The final 3 songs see more frantic eruptions on “Protohuman”, followed by an explosion of punk fuelled energy on “Skybeam”, as they go hell for leather on the penultimate song. The gentle strumming of “All Ashes” ushers a more melodic and textured ending, that feels like they are soothing away any aches or pains you have, with their calming influence.
