THE ANIMATION OF ENTOMOLOGY

Back in 2007, Blotted Science put out their first LP. The band, however, was not a bunch of newcomers to the tech metal scene, but were actually 3 musicians from other tech/prog metal bands. Ron Jarzombek from Watchtower and Spastic Ink and Alex Webster from Cannibal Corpse decided to start a new project that would take tech/prog metal to another level. They recruited Charles Zeleny, a session drummer, and released the LP "The Machinations of Dementia". Nothing new came of this band after this release until 2011, when this EP was released. A new drummer has been recruited in Hannes Grossman who had collaborated with Jarzombek in another project "Terrestrial Exiled". The result is this 7 track EP of very hard and heavy instrumental metal which was re-released on vinyl in 2013.

The first 3 tracks are mostly speed metal with countless time signature changes that will blow you away. The guitar parts are full of quick arpeggios and scales with the bass following along doing it's own thing, more than just a support to the guitar, but a bridge between the guitar and the rapid fire drums. Everything about this is prog tech metal. Themes are very difficult to pick out until you become more familiar with the music, so the payoff there, or the appreciation, don't really grab a hold of you until you listen to it several times. Before that, it is easy to feel lost and confused in this ever changing landscape of heaviness. There are a few breaks in there where you can catch your breath, but don't expect these more quieter breaks to last very long. There are times, especially in "Cretaceous Chasm" that you will swear that Jarzombek is playing a keyboard because of the clarity and phrasing of the notes, not to mention the speed of the notes flying by, around and over your head. The nice thing about all of this, is it's not ruined by growling or shouted vocals. This is completely instrumental. And ideas, melodies, key and time signatures change so fast that your mind won't comprehend it at first.

The last 4 tracks are actually movements of a longer work called "A Sting Operation". The overall work is around 9 minutes long, so each individual section doesn't go over 3 minutes. The style of the preceding tracks continue on these tracks, but in shorter form, as there are noticeable breaks between the movements. This actually makes the sound easier to wrap your head around, and you will pick out those subtle mood shifts between tracks.

Overall, this can seem like a bunch of chaos in the first few listening's, but it will start to make more sense as you hear it more. Typically, I'm not a big fan of Tech Metal, because it tends to lose emotion and songs can start to sound too much alike. This particular release however, is just the right length at over 24 minutes total. This makes it surprisingly more accessible, but there will be many that won't even be able to handle even that short length of time. No doubt that the players involved are talented and they even add dynamics to the various short subsections of the tracks, making things much more interesting. This, however, is not an album that I listen to a lot, because it's just not my taste. Sure I love hard and heavy music, but the technical aspects can tend to sound too much alike after so many minutes. But the good thing about this album is, I find it more accessible given it's shorter length and it might even work towards helping newcomers to this style of music to appreciate it more. I know it influences me to want to understand it better.