There aren't many bands as frenetically abrasive yet immensely enjoyable as Frontierer. It’s a clever trick that verges on Keyser Soze levels of ingenuity and inventiveness. So, it’s no surprise that anticipation for a new Frontierer album is verging on frothing at the mouth status. 2024’s EP, The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like a Life Vest As The Night Wept, kept us sated with its off kilter insanity and notable progression in their trademark unhinged experimental mathcore sound, but we haven’t had a full length release since 2021's Oxidized, and this leaves an itch that very little else can scratch.
Ultraviolet Parasite not only scratches said itch, it tears the skin clean off. The opening title track is a pounding barrage of volume and violence, with huge thumping drums driving everything forward like an angry protest march. Chad Kapper's vocals are as visceral as ever, and almost become an additional piece of instrumentation on the ferocious staccato sections. Business as usual you might say, but there are also shards of light piercing the murky darkness, and that is a theme which sporadically raises its head throughout the album. Let's not go so far as to call it full on melody, but perhaps just a modicum of space. Frontierer are not a band you associate with restraint (tracks like “Wool Glasses” are as restrained as a kangaroo with a machine gun), but it seems they want to dabble with letting things breathe ever so slightly…before duly stamping their boot firmly back on to the windpipe. A great example of this is “Iodine Bath”, which is not only slower than most of the other tracks but contains moments of real texture and patience, making it all the more memorable. “Ions & Oxygen Rockets” also leans into more ambitious territory, with a minimalist yet brooding electronic intro that builds itself to a fervor, before exploding into a galloping joyride you may not survive.
There are fourteen tracks on this album, and I initially thought that seems like a few too many considering the intensity of the music enclosed. But I’d be hard pushed to pick out any tracks that don’t belong here, or aren’t worthy of their inclusion. It’s not even one of those albums that tires or weakens as it goes on. “Our Mainframe Earache” (coming in at track 13) has hooks bigger than the Candyman himself and should create unbridled carnage in a live setting with its maddening morse code riffage. Then there’s album closer “Terraforming Myself”, which is not only a bonafide mathcore masterpiece in my eyes, but also a genuinely beautiful standout moment full of complex arrangements and striking vocal layers. It's possibly one of my favourite tracks of the year so far, and is a perfect finale for an album that challenges its listener in so many many different ways. Akin to being gently washed ashore to safety after you’ve endured the onslaught of a tsunami.
Ultraviolet Parasite is the best album that Frontierer have released in their thirteen years together. It’s as challenging, frenzied and experimental, as it is confident, accomplished and alluring. This is not an easy listen and you won’t always be in the mood, but the rewards for letting this music permeate your being are plentiful.