Indricothere - Indricothere (#9, 2007)

"The indricothere is a long-limbed, hornless rhinoceros that evolved in the Eocene epoch and continued through to the early Miocene. During the late Eocene and early Oligocene, the indricothere evolved and quickly grew to huge sizes. The indricothere reached the peak of their evolution through to the early Miocene, where they had become truly gigantic animals. These were the largest land mammals that ever lived, equaling the medium-sized sauropod dinosaurs in size." from Wikipedia



Indricothere plays the kind of music a cheesy sci-fi movie would show a future post-apocalyptic dystopia's youth culture going mad over (an old crank's thinly-veiled put-down of contemporary youth culture's goddamn racket!). A drum machine jackhammers inhumanly and almost arhythmically, unpredictably reversing course or stopping full. A guitar (or two) shreds mercilessly, somehow keeping up with the sadistic robotic assault. Sometimes a synthesizer will slip into the fray temporarily. There are no vocals. It is extreme. It is metal. It is avant-garde.

This is the debut EP from Colin Marston's solo identity, and the idea of a full-length LP makes me shudder. Five songs is just the right amount for such a barrage of what could be viewed electro-grindcore prog. The tracks all have Roman numeral titles, but don't present in their typical order. They are: II, V, IV [embedded above], I, and III. Summarizing each would be silly. They all simultaneously sound the same and contain a mind-boggling variety. Each has numerous and diverse sections, usually a couple that let you catch your breath for a few seconds of heavy metal. "III" even has some portions of clean guitar work. The shorter tracks, "IV" and "I," are probably the more straightforward entry points.


So, Colin Marston. Unbeknownst to me, he made his mark early this millennium playing the Warr Guitar (a Chapman Stick on steroids) with Behold... The Arctopus. They played similarly experimental, progressive extreme-metal as a trio. Then (and now) he played bass in the well-respected Dysrhythmia, another avant-metal band. And most recently, he's shared guitar duties in the mighty Krallice, a USBM band of pure awesomeness. The other guitarist is former Flying Luttenbacher Mick Barr, who also does some Indricotheric stuff as Orthrelm, Ocrilim, Octis, etc... Check out this live video! Gilead Media did a really nice job on both the Indricothere vinyl (comes with cd) and the colored vinyl for Krallice's debut 2xLP!

Official/Myspace - myspace.com/indricothere
Purchase - Gilead Media
iTunes - Indricothere

Genre - Pummeling Technical Blackened Death
Review - Metal Underground