Frontierer – Ultraviolet Parasite Review

Transatlantic mathcore band Frontierer have always been a bit of an acquired taste for me. Sometimes the band’s blend of frantic noise is exactly what I need; other times it can be a little too overwhelming to be enjoyable. That doesn’t take away from how actually complex this band is at times, and with their latest album, Ultraviolet Parasite, we’re offered a new layer of complexity.

Fronterier‘s brand of pummeling mathcore often scratches an itch in my brain. Its relentless pounding can almost be therapeutic, finding a sense of peace among the chaos. With Ultraviolet Parasite, this ruthless pummeling of sometimes incoherent downtuned guitars, scattergun drumming, and frenzied screams gets turned up a notch with the addition of glitchy, chopped breakcore being spliced amongst the walls of sound.

This is an album that I imagine Venetian Snares would come up with if Aaron Funk was handed a downtuned guitar. It’s somewhat similar to Snares’ Winnipeg is a Frozen Shithole album, which has his signature glitchy breakcore stylings with booming, overdriven industrial hardcore power noise which is, at times, borderline unlistenable, but has a certain maddening charm to it.

Frontierer have never been shy about creating incomprehensible noise, and they do it in a way that isn’t just noise for noise’s sake. Beyond the initial chaos, there is a rhythmic element, and in some tracks, notably the closing track, Terraforming Myself, this sense of rhythm and melody is at the forefront. It’s not that the band can’t create something melodic; they likely just don’t want to.

Ultraviolet Parasite stands out as more of an experimental album compared to previous releases; Orange Mathematics, for example, was a more in-your-face, explosive guitar-driven affair. This album throws more electronic aspects into the mix alongside otherworldly pitch-shifted guitar squeals and dissonant riffs, adding further to the Pollock-spattered aural canvas that Frontierer create.

Frontierer aren’t for everyone, admittedly, but for those who enjoy a blend of frenetic, crushing, heavy mayhem, they’ll certainly eat this album up. Ultraviolet Parasite sits firmly on the extreme end of mathcore; in fact, it tiptoes the line of being considered noisegrind, which is definitely an accolade.

What I find most impressive about Frontierer, and something that’s evident throughout this album, is how the instruments and vocals all come together as one. And I mean that in a sense that the vocals feel like another instrument, with staccato screams that often play in tandem with the drums or guitars. Every member of Frontierer comes together as one, and I love that about the band.