The Machinations of Dementia

The guitarist from 80's prog metal band 'Watchtower' gets together with Cannibal Corpse's Alex Webster on bass and the drummer for tech prog act 'Behold the Arctopus' to write a debut instrumental album for their side project 'Blotted Science', and globally it's pretty much what one might suspect it is. The album consists of heavy chunks of metal rhythms serving as a foundation for the starring lead guitars and their innumerable moods, on what is a record very pleasant and natural to the ear production-wise and resolutely unnatural to the ear musically.

Most of the rhythm work is purposely wobbly, like it sits on unsteady structures on the brink of collapse yet held together somehow in the end. The chugs often come across as unfinished riff ideas that keep looping in odd time signatures and timings; all part of the show, of course. Webster's bass presence adds an interesting dynamic and depth to the rhythm section with its subtle metallic buzzing and tight grind at the back of the guitars. The drums are the characteristic stammering clinic associated with the style, with a super tight sound that's strongly compressed yet organic that makes them feel light and mobile rather than stall the music with an overly thick presence in the mix; a potentially foreseeable side-effect given their work rate, that was well sorted out here.

To be blunt about it, this basically often sounds like a modern metal version of King Crimson, coupled with flashes of 80's lead-oriented prog metal soundtracks, and then the occasional surprise of more extreme sections - the tracks at times throwing in an outright death metal part with tremolo picking over blast beats. The leads like to go crazy with full-fledged math metal gymnastics during the wilder moments, or awry more dissonant mid-paced oddities alongside a trademark octave-harmonized slew of diminished-scale phrasings.

The album distills a myriad of musical moods, but one could surely say the common denominator is a certain dark color in atmosphere from track to track. To be clear, this wouldn't qualify as "extreme metal" per se, although an argument could always be made it is on the basis of its erratic nature and bludgeoning effect on the listener, and it certainly is no picnic of an experience. More to the point, this is dark-tinted progressive metal with an emphasis on producing aural illusions and dizzying experimental trances that mean to keep the audience on alert, constantly soliciting their utmost attention rather than putting them in a comfort zone with a consistent smooth evenness track in track out.

The material on here in that sense isn't merely eccentric, it pulls the listener in with counter-intuitive melodies and rhythms purposely designed to be disruptive and unsettling. It makes it a hard rule to never give the audience what it might be expecting and circumvents the foundational principle for all music to have a natural continuity to it (with a possible exception for the clean guitar spells), which ultimately makes it anti-music in at least that one dimension. Or just plain autistic. Either one.

So this is what a full instrumental metal album made by three guys with Asperger's syndrome might sound like if you cared to find out. High IQ, low social/interactive skills and lots of notes. But an odd coherence linking all those notes. And a full 16 tracks and just under an hour in length, that still avoid sounding dull and repetitive, even towards the end. An intriguing endeavor to be sure, even for the full instrumental album skeptic.

Annable Courts - http://antichristmagazine.com/review-blotted-science-the-machinations-of-dementia-eclectic-electric/

Okay first of all, Ron Jarzombek is a freaking compositional genius and a god on the guitar! Most guitarists either have one of the two qualities (compositional skills and playing skills) but he is one of the ultra-rare cases where you get the best of both worlds. In my opinion, he is right up there with Tosin Abasi, Fredrik Thordendal and Guthrie Govan as currently one of the best guitarists in the world. A bold statement, but I assure you, when you hear the album you’ll understand. Hard as it may be to describe his style, one can definitely hear the manic chromatic phrasing and dissonant riffing in his unique style, but safe to say he kicks it up several notches. Also please hear his work in Spastik Ink and Watchtower especially the seminal album Control And Resistance. Man his playing in that album pretty much defines technical metal from the get go. If you haven’t already, please go and listen to it. Right now. I mean this was back in the 80s. The question of why he has yet to earn the admiration and praise from metal maniacs and guitar aspirants in general even after decades still eludes me.

Synaptic Plasticity starts off with some heavy riffing trademark of Jarzombek kicking into the frenzied solo section at 3:06. Laser Lobotomy boasts the heaviest set of riffs on the album and Brain Fingerprinting has an awesome lick at around 0:44 which you’ll be humming for the rest of the day. Hell I know I did. Your body will face different types of convulsions including twisted dance moves (yeah no kidding) as you struggle to comprehend the maniacal licks and solos unleashed by the underrated guitar god, but man if you dig technical music, this is as perfect as hell is ever going to get. And I’m not even religious. Even the slower interludes fit perfectly and add to the albums atmosphere as a whole. The drumming is as expected, super frantic and surprisingly the bass playing is monstrous reminiscent of players like Steve DiGiorgio technically carving a twisted new path for itself. Hear “Amnesia” for further proof. That is one sick intro.

This entire album has a really creepy and unnerving vibe to it; pretty much the perfect soundtrack to silently sneaking around a hospital with only a Heckler And Koch MP 5 for company where zombies and hordes of gigantic insects have been let loose. Throughout the journey you’ve witnessed countless unharmed humans and diseased patients being torn apart to shreds and eaten, but all you can think about is saving yourself. Sounds fucked up and crazy? Well so is this album. Particularly the intro of the song “Activation Synthesis Theory”. Man that is sure to make your skin crawl for the first minute before launching itself into a progressive odyssey of razor sharp technicality. And “Night Terror” well, just try playing it in the dead of night with all the lights out and see what your mind conjures up. Won’t be pretty for sure .There’s a nasty sludgy breakdown at 4:05 in the song with an eerie lead in the background. Welcome to your nightmare. Even the melodic side of the albums plays out magnificently in tracks like “The Insomniac” and “Bleeding In The Brain”.

Although some people have pointed out the slight lack of variety in the record with the songs sounding similar to one another, the musicianship and skill on display is just too damn good and you can easily ignore that small fact. One of the best instrumental albums out there and the mind-boggling guitar theatrics (truly ahead of the times) need to be heard to be believed. Let me assure you, it is anything but mindless wankery. Get your hands on this and give Jarzombek the respect he truly deserves.

Wow! What else could we say, listenning to any of the 16 tracks on the album The Machinations of Dementia by the band Blotted Science? Or supergroup should I say.

This band is a three-piece-band. On the bass guitar, we have Alex Webster, from Cannibal Corpse, on the drums, we have Charlie Zeleny from Behold... The Arctopus and on the guitar, who else then Ron Jarzombek, the brain behind the progressive band Spastic Ink.

After only a few seconds in Synaptic Plasticity, we can feel the death metal influences in their music. While these influences cannot be ignored, I don't think the band should ever be classified as such. They are still mainly, a prog band. So this is definitely Ron's most agressive and most heavy record so far. There is a reason why I'm starting my review with some little info on Jarzombek. Ron Jarzombek being the mastermind of this project, it's essential that we start with him an mention the incredible song-writting on this album. Listenning to Ron Jarzombek's solo project, I can easily recognize his song-writting. I can easily say that this is my favorite work by him so far, though. His talent really does shine on The Machinations of Dementia. Even though the guitar really stands out on this album, Webster's bass work won't go unnoticed. Laser Lobotomy starts out with a great guitar riff, but in a matter of seconds, Webster joins in, adding so much heavyness and so much power to the song. Another one of my favorite moments on this album is the intro of Narcolepsy, on which Webster starts by stalking the guitar, following Ron's melodies, but then delivers an heavy blow, just to catch back with the guitar again. If sometimes Webster stalks Jarzombek, it's obviously not true for the whole album though. At the beginning of Amnesia, he starts with his own awesome line, until the guitars join in. He then starts to blow over Jarzombek's crazy ass guitar solo. That's when you hear how so many years of death metal can come in handy.

If the bass and guitar are so amazing, what could we possibly expect from Zeleny? Well, nothing more than what he gave for this record. And well, anyone who's heard their work, knows he can deliver and add up to the great ambiences on the album.

Talking about ambience, the whole album revolves around some psychological, sleep and brain related themes. And while their music is all instrumental, you can still find links between the different titles and the songs. Night Terror, is probably the most fitting example to demonstrate my opinions on the matter.

I mentionned the death metal influences of Blotted Science earlier, but this should in no way, stop anyone from listenning this album. And while you can find some death metal influences in the guitar riffs and bass line, most of these influences are to be found in the drums. As I said before, this is more prog than it is death metal. While Spastic Ink was a great prog metal project, Ron Jarzombek's greatest work is to be found on this album. Zeleny and Webster really did help him to push this even further, making it one of the greatest progressive metal releases to this date.

This one, is definitely a gem that should shine in any prog fan's library.

Forming a band with three very talented individuals can go one of two ways: Producing excellent music, using the full potential of each member, or fail miserably under the weight of expectation. Thankfully, for Blotted Science, the former occurs, and what we are presented with here are 16 tracks just bursting at the seams with technical flair and instrumental wizardry.

Blotted Science is a three-piece band with Ron Jarzombek (Spastic Ink, Watchtower, and about 100 other projects), Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse, Hate Eternal), and Charlie Zeleny (Behold… The Arctopus). So as you can already tell, the experience and musicianship here are pretty much second to none. This is enough to make your head implode, due to the sheer amount of quality behind the music. BUT so much quality doesn’t automatically equal a good album, as we all are fully aware. In this case, they are all used very well, and the songs are very interesting enough to keep the listener happy.

The guitars are what you would very much expect from Ron Jarzombek. If you have heard his work on Spastic Ink, then what you will find here is something similar, only heavier. He can definitely solo, and most of his solos are very melodic. However, it’s his riffs that really steal the show. Recalling a riff once the album has ended will be difficult, but that doesn’t mean they are bad. It just means there’s a lot happening. He is very technical, and pulls it all off flawlessly. Tracks like Synaptic Plasticity, Activation Synthesis Theory, and Amnesia are ones that stand out for me in terms of the guitar work, but every song can hold their own. There is also an excellent riff at 1:45 on Night Terror which is very catchy.

The bass is very busy, also. Rather than just follow the guitars all the time, the bass is sometimes an entity on its own, which is great, because Alex is one hell of a bassist. His obvious highlight is the beginning of Amnesia, where he creates a great bass line, then goes into the main riff of the song. One of the best parts of the album, indeed.

The drumming is another highlight, as well. Not many drum solos in the album, but there doesn’t really need to be, as they are busy all the time anyway. It’s difficult to pinpoint any exact sections as to where he shines brightest, but that’s because he is constantly changing tempos and adding fills all over the album. His fastest work would have to be on the track Amnesia, where he blasts very quickly over a fast guitar riff. He just excels everywhere.

The songs themselves are seemingly random pieces of notes and riffs haphazardly connected together, much like Spastic Ink and, especially, Behold… The Arctopus. However, looking deeper into them will reveal that they are less haphazard and more clever. How the band members can remember each song is a feat on its own, so that further indicates the technicality on display here. The production is very clear, and everything can be heard as equally as each other, which is a great bonus, considering the type of music they play.

Coming in at 16 tracks and just under an hours running time, the album can seem quite an exhausting listen, and it is. They should’ve cut 10 minutes off, and it would’ve been much better. However, there is a lot on show here. It sounds like they had a blast recording this stuff, and if you love this sort of thing, then you would be a fool to pass up Blotted Science’s debut album. Here’s hoping they record some more stuff in the future, as this super-band has a lot of creativity still left in them.

Best tracks: Synaptic Plasticity, Night Terror, E.E.G. Tracings, Amnesia

If you're in any way familiar with the work of Ron Jarzombek, you'll already know that it's not quite normal. 'Control and Resistance' spun the thrash blueprint on its head, and Spastic Ink still comes off as quirky as ever (this coming from someone who once mixed vodka and tomato ketchup to try get something resembling a Bloody Mary). Anyway, I'd been searching for videos on youtube and saw a few clips of him chugging away on some riffs for a new project. Fascinating as always, though cursed by being too damn short.

It dropped under my radar for some time, and while I was napping, it turns out plenty was cooking. Monster bassist Alex Webster (you know him) was already on board, which should have been enough to get a curious look-see from the metal community at large. Drummers had come and gone, till the spot was finally firmly taken by Charlie Zeleny from Behold...the Arctopus. Just so you know, any band with an ellipsis in their name is likely to be whack. Anyway, if you've heard any of their stuff, you should be reassured that the man can handle the weirdness.

Ok, now that I've got the easy stuff out of the way, I suppose I'll have to get around to the music. Doing a song by song analysis is near impossible here, since this project has very little to do with individual songs and more about an all-out sonic assault on your senses. This is probably the least accessible music he's made, edging out 'Ink Complete' by a narrow margin. The thing with the other albums (barring the above mentioned) is that the presence of vocals, no matter how off-kilter, more often than not has the tendency to bring a more coherent pattern to the fray. Here, on the other hand, you have close to an hour of instrumental mayhem with no respite - it's not for the faint hearted.

Reading the song list, you might be fooled into thinking is a family-friendly goregrind band for shrinks. For that matter, it might just be. You see, the theme presents all sorts of mental phenomena and illnesses, which the music more than adequately manages to convey. In the sense that if you stay up late, on the verge of sleep while listening to this, and then check the song title of whatever is currently you're playing and see something like 'Laser Lobotomy', you'd think that sounded about right.

I think of listening to this album as being stuck in a car with these three whackjobs. A muscle car with no brakes, hurtling down a cliffside road. You can't stop it, can't pause for a breather, can't sit back and enjoy the view (except for the few moments when they decide to crash into a conveniently parked petrol pump for a change of pace) - all you can do is scream "I love this shit!" and hope it doesn't kill you.

Jarzombek is honest-to-god insane. It's like he hates playing the same riff more than once, and just keeps lining up the most twisted guitar riffs in his arsenal back-to-back at breakneck speed till you go bonkers trying to follow the trail. And the solos have no problem keeping up, hurdling jagged rhythms with mind-boggling accuracy and more than a hint of goofball mania. Webster holds his own, doubling over the guitar rhythms nearly all the time, which is pretty stunning considering he's a plucker. He's given free space some of the time, which he uses to great effect, most notably in 'Amnesia', where, if you're the kind who likes to connect the dots, the bass noodling could be construed as a hat-tip to Cliff Burton and 'Anesthesia'. Just a theory. Zeleny rounds off the rhythm section by doing a solid job, never really taking too much attention away from the main event, but adding his own mix into the maelstrom.

This is definitely not for everyone. It's loud, manic, technical and unpredictable noise. But for those who that doesn't scare away, it's worth the venture.

http://www.kvltsite.com

Wow, of all the people to come together to make an instrumental group. Another wow to how good the music they make together is. This is one album that must be heard to be believed, as Blotted Science is one very amazing instrumental act and is truly capable of crafting amazingly good music. It's off the wall progressive, yet a lot of the time it is downright brutal and hard to comprehend how much skill is put into this band. Something that really needs to be heard to believed.

The mastermind behind Blotted Science is a little known Texas guitar great named Ron Jarzombek. Yes people, it is Ron not Dimebag who is the best guitarist ever to come out of Texas. Now for all of you people who know (or don't), Ron has played in various bands like SA Slayer (only called SA Slayer because the real Slayer copyrighted the name so they couldn't be just called Slayer), which even included some of the same death metal type lyrical themes of Slayer (such as gore, torture, mutilation etc etc. No anti Christianity for all you people who dig that stuff). He was also the mastermind behind Spastic Ink, and later he would come into one of the most famously underrated metal bands of all time, Watchtower. Ron has quite a bit of experience under his belt, so forming an instrumental group is no problem for him. He's really the star performer here, as he shreds away with probably hundreds of off the wall time signature changes, crazy melodies, insane licks of shredding and downright instrumental brutality. Well if Ron is going to be brutal with his skills, he might as well hire brutal musicians.

Where better to look for brutal musicians, who are used to playing brutal music, then the massive American death metal community.

And who better to pick up the Cannibal Corpse (and Hate Eternal session) bassist Alex Webster and ex Hate Eternal, Malevolent Creation, Nile, and everyone else and their brother's extreme metal band's drummer, Derek Roddy!

These two don't really need much explanation. We all know Alex Webster to be a master of the almighty five string bass, playing finger style in a musical genre usually dominated by pick bass players. But Alex goes and plays a five string, shreds it up on the bass. He does it extremely well with Blotted Science. Everything Ron throws at Alex guitar wise, Alex makes up an amazing part to go with it, providing complete low end devastation. Now if your head hasn't exploded already from the six string machine gunning of Ron, and the five string artillery bombardment from Alex, then it will definitely crumble under the might of the all powerful nuclear metronome we call Derek Roddy. As usual, Derek goes out of his way to prove he is one of the best drummers in the world (not the best, for me right now that's a tie between George Kollias and Gene Hoglan but still he's quite amazing). Unlike making Derek drum progressive style like the Watchtower drummer has done, Ron basically tells Derek to fire at will when it comes to the drums. In turn, he lays down some unrelenting fits of double bass and blast beats, but is constantly changing time and being off the wall. Amazing for a guy who usually drums in music that doesn't do that many time signature changes.

Find Machines of Dementia if possible, I don't regret that I found it. It's an amazing album that must be heard to be believed.