FLUCTADMISSION

"Fluctadmission" is a promo/ demo release by Norwegian tech/ extreme progressive metal act Frantic Bleep. The promo was meant to showcase Frantic Bleep´s music to record labels. There are four tracks on this release and only one of them ("Mandaughter") made it unto the debut full-length studio album by Frantic Bleep called "The Sense Apparatus (2005)".

First of all calling this a demo is probably misleading because this has to be one of the most impressive promo/ demo releases I have ever heard. The production is fully professional and actually better than the sound on many official releases by other artists. The musicianship is excellent and most importantly of all the compositions are of high quality. Frantic Bleep have their own style that´s for sure. A pretty original band this one. There are elements from both progressive metal, thrash metal and more extreme forms of metal too featured in the music. The vocals are both clean and raspy/ aggressive. There are lots of keyboards in the music which at times provides the music with a kind of futuristic touch. A great asset to the music IMO. The two guitarists plays some pretty technically complex riffs while the fretless bass gives the music the last push from really great to excellent. The atmosphere is dark and I really enjoy the mood in the songs. The structure of the songs can seem a bit fractured at times and it took me a while to appreciate but now it´s actually one of the things I find most intriguing about them. I like it when artists mess with the vers/ chorus formula.

"Fluctadmission" is a a promo that´s definitely worth your time and if you are able to find it, I´d recommend a purchase right away. Adventurous and genre defying progressive metal has seldom worked better than here. A 3.5 - 4 star rating is deserved.