Style: avant-garde jazz, jazz fusion, avant-garde metal (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: King Crimson, Cynic, Alan Holdsworth, Frank Zappa, Krallice, Mahavishnu Orchestra
Review by: Andy
Country: United States-NY
Release date: 13 September 2023
Colin Marston is a musical genius in the metalsphere, a wizard on bass, guitar, and keyboards, and a production savant. And somehow, the two most normal projects he’s attached to are Gorguts and Krallice, so his personal projects certainly aren’t the most accessible content out there. Aside from a very productive string of Krallice albums, Marston has largely shied away from metal of late, favoring his various electronica projects (highlights of which include Lepton Drip, Kheth Astron, and Tholos Gateway). That is, until he announced the new Behold the Arctopus album, Interstellar Overtrove.
Or so I assumed. Starting to move away from metal into a more complete avant-garde jazz style with their most recent album, Behold the Arctopus have been a stupidly–unlistenably even–technical instrumental metal band for the better part of two decades. Colin and his crew are never afraid to go for the weird and absurd, and Interstellar Overtrove is decidedly another non-metal experiment for Marston and the gang.
The most interesting way to describe the sound emanating from this album is by comparison because those genre tags at the top of the review could sound like anything. Imagine you fed an AI the jazz sections of Cynic’s Focus and told it to compose something with slightly corrupted versions of the files and play it back at 150% speed. Imagine Blotted Science played with a jazz fusion guitar tone while Ron Jarzombeck attempted to freely improvise the weirdest thing his insane, creative brain could think of. Imagine if Anthony Braxton dropped the saxophone and instead picked up a synthesized guitar. Interstellar Overtrove is weird.
Now I am no stranger to the esoteric, but Behold the Arctopus have always felt a level too over-the-top, and this is no different. Interstellar Overtrove sounds incredibly convoluted, as if the whole band is in on some strange joke; and I say that as the Subway’s number one free jazz apologist (dare I say huge fan?). Unfortunately, I’m forced to speak in generalities regarding Interstellar Overtrove because as soon as Behold the Arctopus play something that resembles a nice chord progression or recognizably cool jazz fusion or spacey electronica, they alter the entire space-time continuum underneath themselves: Track breaks function as a sort of organization of the madness, but everything else feels arbitrary as the band spaffs all over their instruments and calls it a day. They’re incredibly skilled musicians who are having fun by not attempting songwriting.
The abandoning of electric and distorted instruments further feels incredibly uncanny. With Simmons electronic drums, acoustic percussion (Jason Bauers), Warr guitar (similar to a Chapman stick), guitar, and guitar synth (Colin Marston and Mike Lerner), the sonic palette Behold the Arctopus can pull from is limited to a weird retro-digitism. I don’t hate it outright, and it feels weirdly perfect for the absurdism underlying the music, but I can hardly take it seriously. The drum sound in particular is frustrating because the analog synth percussion is extremely timbrally unique but not exactly rewarding–at least to my taste.
I don’t mind rampant experimentation, but I wish Behold the Arctopus would consider approaching it in a more genuine way. The whole project feels sardonic, especially with track titles like “Echoes of Deletion (Instrumental)” on a completely instrumental album. The band has my respect from the members’ respective pedigrees, but I cannot be counted among their fans.
Recommended tracks: Hot for Emotions, Echoes of Deletion (Instrumental)
You may also like: Lepton Drip, Planet X, Psyopus, Dysrhythmia, Blotted Science, Ron Jarzombeck, Anthony Braxton
Final verdict: 4/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Youtube | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: independent
Behold the Arctopus is:
– Jason Bauers: Simmons Electronic Drums, acoustic percussion
– Colin Marston: Warr Guitar, guitar synth
– Mike Lerner: guitar, guitar synth
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