Style: Whack progressive metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Native Construct, Between the Buried and Me, Opeth
Review by: Zach
Country: New Zealand
Release date: 31 July, 2023
Let’s rip a band-aid off, I have autism spectrum disorder (ASD). My love (and by extension, special interest) of progressive metal stems from the fact that there is so much to focus on in the average prog song that it usually steers my brain away from any anxiety and overstimulation I may experience in my day-to-day life. I’ve had a whole blog post in my back pocket about my experience with ASD and prog metal, but I’m not here to promote that. I’m here to talk about Frontieera’s debut album.
Let me start off by saying this is easily one of the coolest origin stories of a band I’ve ever read. The two members of Fronteeria met on a social media group for adults with ASD, and bonded over their love of Opeth. Furthermore, Charlie is a fingerstyle guitarist and Sara is a classically trained pianist, and both specialize in improvisation. There is truly nothing harder than an improvisational piece, let me tell you. Unless you want to make it sound like free jazz, you need to know every note on your instrument inside and out. So, to say I was excited for this is an understatement.
I…I’m frankly at a loss for words. Among my contemporaries, I have a tendency to overscore, because I’m a music lover first and a critic second. I know how difficult it is to write, produce, record. I know of all the frustrations that come with having something in your head only for it to come out wrong, but to be honest, I can’t be soft on this. ‘The Droughts of War’ set a musically bleak scene for the rest of the album. Charlie’s vocals try their very best to sound blues-y, but it all sounds sloppy.
Yeah, sloppy is the word I’d use to describe this album. Creative, sure, but completely and utterly sloppy. The opening riff of ‘In the Shadow of Appalachia’ is played incredibly poorly, and no use of odd scales or intervals can justify this…it’s just bad. The inclusion of a honky-tonk piano near the end of the intro would be cool if the mix was the least bit coherent. Everything is drowned out by everything else in this album. The guitar tone is horrendous, the bass is nonexistent, and the drums may as well be static. Whenever Charlie starts his croons, he takes over everything else in the mix, crushing everything beneath him.
‘The Lagermouth Plague’ has a somewhat cool atmospheric solo near the end, but maybe it’s just because it’s a reprieve from the sheer chaos my brain witnessed during the first two songs. The chorus right at the end should hit so fucking hard, and it all falls flat because of the vocal delivery. ‘Nebraska’ sounds like a drunken folk song, which I guess is the intention? “It’s supposed to sound bad bro, that’s jazz” really doesn’t cut it here. The dissonance towards the end is only relieved when the song ends, and it just feels grating without the slightest bit of release.
On the flipside, Sara’s piano absolutely shines during the interlude ‘A Tulip in a Twister’, and really makes me wish for this kind of stuff during the actual songs. Only followed up by ‘The Ballad of Jedadiah Smith’, which showcases Charlie’s skill on an acoustic, and lack thereof on vocals. But these two tracks made me pause the album for a second and look these two up to see if they’d done anything else.
Turns out, these two are fucking TALENTED musicians. When they’re doing improv or softer tracks playing off each other, they create some beautiful stuff. In fact, I’m going to ask you to listen to the linked song I’m putting here before the album itself, just to understand how angry this makes me. The fact that as I’m writing this the stupid jam section in ‘Sequioa Lumberjack’ is playing makes it even worse.
This album pisses me off. Two clearly talented people creating shit is the most unforgivable crime in creativity. It’s like if Scorsese just decided to one day forget how to make a movie and make The Room 2. This is, without a doubt, the most insulting album I’ve ever reviewed at the Subway, because unlike Simulacra, these two are capable of creating masterworks. So, the two of you, shape up. Dust yourselves off. Try harder.
Recommended tracks: None
You may also dislike: Culak, Simulacra, The Dark Atom
Final verdict: 2/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify
Label: Independent
Fronteeria is:
– Charlie (vocals, guitars, bass, drums)
– Sara (piano)
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