NOCICEPTOR – Among Insects EP
- Posted on 13-08-2011
Dallas, Texas’ Nociceptor give us an 8 track poly-rhythmic metal lesson with “Among Insects”. Consisting of 6 actual songs, an intro and “Emergence” which is a 50 second math groove instrumental breather, the four piece reside in the lower Nevermore power sound when they choose to riff conventionally – but prefer to showcase their Meshuggah and Tesseract appreciation as well. Vocalist JD Schmidt employs a sandpaper speed approach in songs like “The Fell” and “Mollusk”, but mixes things up in ethereal cleanness for “Botfly”.
These musicians seriously toil over every transition and arrangement – maintaining cohesiveness amidst the free form complexity at hand. Imagine fingers popping, hands cramping up and brains challenging to train themselves for all of the off time triplet rolls, picking maneuvers, jazz meets fusion meets neo-classical solo work out of guitarist Travis Montgomery and boil it down to takeaway song formatting. Not everything Nociceptor play is at ridiculous warp speed – there are many moments that are in mid-tempo or even slightly doom-like pacing where drummer Michael Eskandari gets a chance to lay down semi-groove parts amidst the poly-rhythmic bass drumming.
Kudos to the group for admitting that their music defies individual definition – that it’s up to you and you alone to discover, ruminate, and process what you make out of “Among Insects”. For my money, this is the tip of the iceberg in Nociceptor’s creative well, and if you are looking for something to really screw with your mind and turn it upside down for your betterment, I doubt little else will do but this sonic soundtrack.