Frontierer – Ultraviolet Parasite (Review)

Ever since I saw Frontierer opening for Converge in 2023, I became a big fan. They just scratched my itch for chaotic Hardcore combined with electric frenzy. Rapid rhythmic shifts, piercing noise and disturbing vocal acrobatics – all within the first minute of the opening track, “Ultraviolet Parasite”. Two years after their last EP, The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like a Life Vest as the Night Wept, the new album has once again turned out not to be a summery surf rock record, but rather an abrasive musical construct at the intersection of Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan and cybergrind heavyweights Genghis Tron.

The opening title track sets the zigzagging course: a long and winding road, except it only goes downhill and someone keeps delivering a solid kick to your back. Double bass barrages collide with an armada of effects pedals, all held together by the guttural glow of the vocalist. Other prime examples include “Wool Glasses” and “Retrograde F”. Songs whose sole purpose is to make the stressful outside world seem not quite so bad after all.

Of course, Frontierer know that constantly grinding everything to dust will leave you with nothing but dust pretty quickly. They therefore interrupt the auditory demolition in various ways: through electronic experimentation (“Emerging Claustrophobic”, which would also have fit quite nicely on the second Blood Brothers album), guest appearances (The Armed add to the sonic chaos of “Ions & Oxygen Rockets” as it continues to expand in every direction), or simply by allowing their songs some room to breathe (the closer, “Terraforming Myself”). The latter even features passages with what you might call “actual” singing before the longest track reaches an almost “conciliatory” conclusion – at least when viewed in the context of the album as a whole.

Listening to Frontierer is a bit like watching a Reddit video of a dying PlayStation 2. Right up until the final moments of its graphics chip, the console tries to keep a video game running (a strangely beautiful sight). This is music on the verge of existential collapse. Arms are flailing, legs are kicking, and wide-open eyes desperately search for something to hold on to. The search proves futile. Glitching until the bitter end. It only stops when nothing works anymore.

Thomas Transcended

From: Herten (Germany)
Favorite Artists: Nine Inch Nails – Depeche Mode – Converge
Best Show: Envy@Gebäude 9 (Cologne)
Other Endeavors: Author at Plattentests.de