Ever since the hole left by the dissimulation of one of the most formative deathcore groups of the past ten years, The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, other bands have been

8 years ago

Ever since the hole left by the dissimulation of one of the most formative deathcore groups of the past ten years, The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, other bands have been trying to fill the void that Josh Travis and his atonal, noisy, aggressive-beyond-belief approach left in the worldwide scene. Even though Travis released a full-length with his other band, Glass Cloud, there’s been a definite lack of the sort of chaotic, rough approach that he took with Danza. There’ve been some great Danza-inspired deathcore albums, like the most recent outing from iwrestledabearonce, and some not so great ones, but by and large, many are still seeking something to fill the void left by the band’s breakup.

Frontierer wants to push their way directly into this hole. Their debut album, ORANGE MATHEMATICS, is noisy, chaotic, and aggressive: the concentrated essence of Travis’ reflections into dissonance lives on through the powerful trio of Pedram Valiani, Owen Hughes, and Chad Kopper (guitars, drums, and vocals, respectively), and on their first LP, they manage to totally knock it out of the park, crowning themselves as the new go-to for anybody looking for some Danza-inspired mayhem.

From the very start of the record, everything is go, go, go. The opening track, “Bunsen”, is beating the shit out of the listener’s ears within ten seconds, and Frontierer never lets go from that point forward. The only moments of quiet to be found on this record are in the beats between the crashing tidal waves of chugs or in the split second of silence that often finds the band coalescing to prepare the next assault; if Frontierer ever lets up for a measure, just know that it’s more often than not (read: always) just the windup for an aural sucker punch.

Anybody who’s listened to The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza in the past knows what to expect here: guitar riffs that are abominably heavy and grungy to the point of contention, plenty of weird, dissonant leads, bizarre off-time parts that seem to deny the existence of time signatures, and an overall sound that is seething with nuclear blast levels of barely-contained rage. That’s not to say that Frontierer haven’t taken on a life of their own, though; Valiani’s songwriting includes a lot more electronic elements and repetitive song structuring than Travis’ has in the past, both of which are subtle differences that, although not noticeable at first, separate the two enough that ORANGE MATHEMATICS doesn’t fall in the all-too-common trap of sounding like a group of admirers found some old Josh Travis demos and decided to record them.

Frontierer may draw their emotive qualities from the sort of mood one wouldn’t wish on their worst enemy, but this is music that can (and should) be recommended to anyone. Updating the chaotic, ugly, powerhouse sound last heard with Danza 4 in 2012 and expanding outwards on it with electronics and different songwriting direction, ORANGE MATHEMATICS brings its own spin on the framework provided by Josh Travis in a way that is simultaneously refreshing and comfortably familiar. Mathcore fanatics, eat your heart out.

Frontierer – ORANGE MATHEMATICS gets…

4.5/5

Simon Handmaker

Published 8 years ago