FEEDING THE ABSCESS

Wow!

I am the kind of music listener that is the ultimate consumer. The "music as a pharmaceutical" listener. I therefore want more and more when it comes to technicality. And that doesn't just mean technicality of the individual musicians. It means the composition has to have a firm direction, regardless of what weird places it takes you.

First off, Martyr is not for everybody. I myself am required to filter the vocals. But it is a minor inconvenience for such extraordinary musicianship and composition. I justify the 5 stars by saying this is a 6 star album with a minus for the vocals. And this is brutal, intense metal. This, despite being in the same genre, is not Dream Theater. They might be compared with the likes of Meshuggah, but with far more Watchtower/Spiral Architect style intricacies. Even the simpler songs like "Feast of Vermin" are relentlessly intense.

The highlight of the album (or should I say, the highest light) is the quadrilogy "Dead Horizon". In actuality, "Dead Horizon" flows seamlessly from the previous song "Felony". Though lyrically disimilar, it seems musically intertwined making it a 5 piece movement.

Last, but not least, the album closes with a cover of my favorite Voivod song, "Brain Scan" from "Dimension Hatross". It is pulled of with precision, tempered by the spacemetal openness typical of late 80's, early 90's Voivod. A fitting tribute.

If you like being tossed about the room by an album, like me, this is the album for you.

"Feeding the Abscess" is the third full-length studio album by Canadian, Quebec based technical death metal act Martyr. The album was released through Galy Records in October 2006. It´s the successor to "Warp Zone" from March 2000 although the two full-length studio albums are bridged by the November 2001 "Extracting the Core: Live 2001" live album. There has been one lineup change since the release of "Warp Zone" as guitarist Pier-Luc Lampron has been replaced by Martin Carbonneau. The remaining members from the lineup who recorded "Warp Zone" are brothers Daniel Mongrain (rhythm and lead guitar, clean vocals) and François Mongrain (bass guitar, growling vocals), and drummer Patrice Hamelin.

Stylistically "Feeding the Abscess" is a continuation of the technical and sometimes progressive death metal style of "Warp Zone" but Martyr have taken that sound and have added even more technical playing, more progressive songwriting ideas, and slightly more meaty brutality to the mix. So everything which made "Warp Zone" a great album has been multiplied here and the gloves are generally off in terms of experimentation and sharp technical playing. The vocals are still shouting and aggressive and the listener is led through a lot of twists and turns during the 13 tracks, 48:24 minutes long playing time, making "Feeding the Abscess" an album which keeps the listener on his/hear toes for the duration of the release.

"Feeding the Abscess" features a well defined, powerful, and professional produced sound production, which suits the material perfectly. You can hear every detail here with ease but there is still enough grit and aggression here for "Feeding the Abscess" never to sound too polished and accessible. In other words Martyr have hit the right balance between sophistication and death metal rawness and brutality.

Overall "Feeding the Abscess" is quite the impressive release from Martyr and the six years since the release of "Warp Zone" have obviously been spend on honing both their playing skills and their compositional skills. I am still of the opinion that they could have gotten more out of the latter though. While there are several jaw-dropping moments and some very intriguing songwriting ideas throughout the album, the sum of the parts don´t always add up to a great overall listen. The material lacks memorable hooks and it´s an album which is entertaining while it plays, but soon forgotten when it stops. So the memorability of the material is the weakest link of the chain here but a 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

'Feeding The Abscess' - Martyr (8/10)

Canadian progressive death metal act Martyr is one of those bands that leave their influences out on a clothesline, all the while hinting at an original sound of their own. Already finding a great album with their second record 'Warp Zone', the band continues their aggressive style of technical metal with 'Feeding The Abscess', an incredibly heavy prog metal album that's nearly certain to spark the interest of quite a few extreme metal fans. Being hailed as a masterpiece by the band's fans, Martyr certainly has some incredible things going on for themselves here, getting the technical aspect of metal mastered to a science.

Something Martyr is incredibly good at is their ability to make classically-inspired technical passages sound heavy as hell. The guitars here are certainly the most noticeable strength here, constantly impressing me, even during the less vicious parts. To make things even better, there is an audible bass sound here that carries some tech weight of its own, and drums where are kept complex and constantly changing. Instrumentally, the band is one to be feared and keeps their sound constantly heavy yet always interesting. In fact, if the album had been made a solely instrumental record, I would have no problem calling it one of the finest instrumental metal albums I have ever heard. What I am getting at is that it should come as no surprise that the weakest element in Martyr are the vocals. Alternating between generic low growls and a form of shouting that sounds like Death vocalist Chuck Schuldiner yelling at his kids, Martyr could have easily done without any vocal delivery and been the better without it. Although it is the all-too Death-inspired shouting vocals that turn me off the most, even the conventional growls lack much substance or dynamic to them. While the Mongrain brothers blow me away with their instrumental prowess, it may have been a good idea to leave the vocals to someone better suited to it.

Although the album is weakened by vocals and a somewhat lacking sense of flow, there's no denying that I am awe-struck by Martyr's incredible grasp of technical metal, and their keen Voivod cover at the end does not hurt things at all! 'Feeding The Abscess' is a musician's dream metal album, and if one can look past the less glorious aspects of the band, there's sure to be alot of enjoyment found here.

Here's another original and technically skilled band coming from Québec. Martyr delivers technically solid death metal with many experiments and surprises such as floating progressive parts, jazz sounds and calm interludes. The band follows the tradition of excellent technical death metal bands from the province such as Quo Vadis, Augury and UneXpect. Martyr is also clearly influenced by Voivod and especially the guitar sounds remind heavily of those of Denis d'Amour. This album perfectly shows and proves us that singer and guitar player Daniel Mongrain was the perfect choice to step in and take the place of this legend in Voivod recently. Let's even say that the Voivod cover "Brain Scan" on this release is one of the best cover versions I ever heard. It's close to the spirit of the original but has an own and unique approach.

The band kicks the album off with one of the straighter songs which is the well chosen "Perpetrual Healing (Infinite Pain)" where the introduction sounds like an old progressive Voivod track while the calmer passages could have been written by Metallica in their earlier years. "Lost In Sanity" also reminds rather of thrash or groove metal than of death metal and shows the band's multiple influences. "Silent Science" has completely unusual and original space sounds as well as frequent changes of rhythm and melody without sounding like endless progressive "wankery" passages. When other bands bore us in progressive attempts in songs that hit at least the ten minute mark, Martyr fuse and combine all of their ideas in five minutes or less. The problem is that the album may sound difficult and overloaded to some but I got used to their style after a few tries because these guys are completely unique and original. Let's say that the band sounds not overambitious as the latest works of Blind Guardian, Rhapsody Of Fire or Dimmu Borgir but rather like the Canadian bands mentioned above. But the album requests a higher amount of patience as well as concentration and an open-minded approach. This is surely not always easy to digest for the usual death metal fan. But don't be afraid to give this album some time and it will probably grow on you quickly.

Almost every song offers grace and aggression and this fusion has never worked so well together as on this record. The true highlights of the album are of course the four tracks that form the "Dead Horizon" epic. These songs sound as one but include various experiments and add something completely new to the entire extreme metal scene. The band sounds like a heavier version of old Dream Theater in those songs but the Voivod influences still shine through in these four tracks. This may sound as if the band wasn't much original and would copy the mentioned bands but that's only partially true as they sound quite unique and outstanding and the technical quality is so elevated that you just don't care. You don't listen to high quality records like this every day. Usually, I don't care much about death metal and my first impression of the album was that it was overloaded and hectic but it really grew on me and requested and deserved multiple listening sessions and approaches.

In the end, this album is almost close to perfection apart of the fact that it's heavy to digest and the kind of masterpiece that you would listen to on special occasions but not frequently. Concerning the technical, creative and innovating point of view, the band is at a very high level and defends the French Canadian heritage and legacy that bands such as Voivod and UneXpect built up within the last years and decades. The best extreme metal music comes from Quebec and Martyr only underline this status with brilliance, grace and controlled aggression.

Originally published on www.metal-archives.com on August 13th of the year 2011.