MARTYR

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.

When I listen to music, technicality and instrumental prowess is something I will always notice, but I cannot always appreciate. It is one thing to respect a musician or group of musicians for being able to play things that I admittedly cannot, but when it comes to actually enjoying the music, alot of these technical bands miss their mark. Hence why I have never been big into technical death metal; the bands achieve marvelous things on an objective front, but the lack of feeling and melody leads it to be predictable for me. Martyr are indeed a tech death band, but they take the genre from a bit of a different angle than some of these other bands. Instead of attempting to wow the listener with an unrelenting foray of solos and mindless arpeggios, Martyr takes the core of songwriting as a necessary element of what they do. Martyr's work would improve over the course of their next two albums 'Warp Zone' and 'Feeding The Abscess', but from this album alone, I would consider Martyr already to be a clean step above many of the others.

The band that Martyr reminds me most of here is Death, the quintessential death metal band. Certainly having taken a few hints from the latter part of Death's career, Martyr's music on 'Hopeless Hopes' is executed with the prowess and precision of tech death, but without much of the mindless self indulgence that bands like Braindrill bring to the table. Martyr's debut picks up where Death's 'Individual Thought Patterns' left off; concise compositions with plenty of powerful riffs blistering away, and some solos that never ceased to impress me. The death vocals of Francois Mongrain are actually fairly comprehensible; you can actually hear what he is trying to say through his growls, which are quite powerful for the genre. Thankfully, all of this is done with a very nice coat of production.

One thing I could complain about with the album is the length, which feels about ten minutes too long. This is due to the band's sound being fairly static; it is always very impressive and well-executed, but Martyr does not bring anything more to the table than death metal, and being a listener who craves dynamic and variety in his listening experience, that was something that kept me from really loving what Martyr are doing here. As far as technical death metal goes though, this band is excellent, and they really shine at what they do.

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.

"Extracting the Core" features the three tracks "Inner Peace", "Hopeless Hopes" and "Prototype" from the debut full-length studio album "Hopeless Hopes (1997)" and six tracks from Martyr´s second full-length studio album "Warp Zone (2000)". Among others the brilliant and powerful title track. Martyr play a technical death metal style with varied extreme vocals and some great musicianship which includes some really excellent shredding guitar solos. Martyr´s musical approach isn´t completely unlike a more technical/complex version of Death (with a few twist and turns which provide Martyr with a sound of their own).

"Extracting the Core" is overall a pretty enjoyable affair but it´s not brilliant by any means. The playing is flawless and the vocals are strong but it´s like the atmosphere isn´t right. This could just as well have been a live in the studio recording with added muted audience noises and comments in french from the band. I´m not really feeling the sweaty and intense atmosphere that I´m sure Martyr are more than capable of creating in a live environment. With that said "Extracting the Core" is still worth a listen or two but I do prefer the studio versions of the tracks. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is fair.

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).

While Martyr are still influenced by the mid-90s technical death metal style of Death (the band), "Warp Zone" sees them forging a style which is more their own. They have also started to incorporate some jazz/fusion influences (primarely in the Holdsworth influenced guitar solos and the occasional ethereal atmospheric moment) and compared to "Hopeless Hopes" it´s just obvious that Martyr have honed their playing skills and have strengthened the mastery of their compositional ideas. "Warp Zone" also features what "Hopeless Hopes" didn´t and that´s a professional, powerful, and well sounding production job. "Warp Zone" is therefore a both well produced, well perfomed, and well composed release.

When that is said the material aren´t particularly memorable even after many listens, which is a bi-product of the complexity of the songwriting and "Warp Zone" sometimes feels like an album loaded with potential, which isn´t quite fulfilled. The sum of the parts simply isn´t as great as the parts themselves. It´s however still a highly recommendable release if you´re a fan of technical death metal in the more sophisticated end of the spectrum (Death, Sadist, Cynic, and Pestilence). A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

Stylistically Martyr are obviously greatly influenced by mid-90s Death (the band) and their sophisticated and technical death metal sound, and it´s fans of that sound who are the main audience for "Hopeless Hopes". But Martyr haven´t clearly defined their sound at this point, and there is a more brutal and direct death metal element found on "Hopeless Hopes", which at times remind me of a less pummeling and brutal Deicide. So while "Hopeless Hopes" is sometimes both technical and progressive in style (which is heard on the opening title track), it has this other more savage and menacing side to it too. The vocals also vary between a raw Chuck Schuldiner (Death) snarling and a more brutal shouting/growling Glen Benton (Deicide) type vocal style.

Martyr are a well playing band, but the sound production is slightly lacking in the power department, which makes "Hopeless Hopes" less effective than it could have been. All instruments and vocals are clearly defined in the mix, but there is a something about the levels and the mix which doesn´t work as well as it could have. Upon conclusion "Hopeless Hopes" is a decent quality debut album from Martyr, but while my blood occasionally boils while listening to it, the blatant mid-90s Death clone factor and the lack of power in the sound production are elements which drag my rating down. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).

I got a chance to see them at Chicago Powerfest '07 and was not dissapointed, they do pull this stuff off live and it is a treat to watch all of the musicians noodle away (with purpose and direction though-). I talked to the lead guy, Daniel Mongrain afterwards and asked if he was a fan of Allan Holdsworth (as I hear it in the leads), and he claimed he "loves the colors Allan uses". He also teaches Jazz guitar in Canada.....awesome guys and excellent, years ahead of the "metal" crowd musicians....

Canada is a hotbed of tech metal activity in North America and Martyr is leading the pack. Buy ALL of their discs!

far and away the best tech death band going, aside from the godly Gorguts (Obscura, From Wisdom To Hate- on which Daniel Mongrain of Martyr played leads on).....

absolutely essential for tech death fans....

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.