If you ever find yourself wanting to listen to something so heavy and disturbingly unhinged that it almost defies description then let this to be your introduction to Fomented. A two piece act from the West Midlands consisting of ex Savage Messiah guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Sy Taplin, and Kieran Scott, the voice behind death metal sluggers DeathCollector, the duo’s independently released debut EP Bitter and Miserable Beings is the musical equivalent of violent nipple torture and ten times more uncomfortable.
A completely DIY production from start to finish, the pair channel a cornucopia of influences to create a unique level of aural evisceration. Overarching themes of self-harm, fear and failure erupt from a melting pot of hardcore, grindcore, death metal, thrash metal, nu-metal and more.
Opener ‘What Can I Change’ is a gurgling stew of slow grinding riffs, dive-bombing harmonics and violent expulsions of speed with Scott sounding like a straitjacketed Randy Blythe being carried off to the nearest mental asylum. The piledriving mid-paced riffery of ‘Tempus Fugit’ is interspersed with jagged and cacophonous fills, pneumatic drumming, bluesy licks and a tormented Jonathan Davis impression at the end.
A German word that describes a dark grey colour some people see in complete darkness, ‘Eigengrau’ is a seething morass of bass, drums and chunky riffs while ‘The Predator’ blasts into a frantic landslide of Lamb of God style thuggery with added derangement and an ending that defies sanity. Bringing things to an even more barking-mad conclusion than you can imagine, ‘Captain Slidey Pants’ features clean vocals and hillbilly accents, and sounds like a fucked up combination of South Park, Lamb of God, and no context Mike Patton.
Offering surprises and total confusion at every twisted and unbalanced turn, Bitter and Miserable Beings is not only a sensational mix of everything from Knocked Loose to Korn and Mr Bungle but genuinely sounds like it requires full-time psychiatric assistance. Take your tablets and enjoy.
Buy the EP here:
https://fomentedhcofficial.bandcamp.com/track/what-can-i-change
8 / 10
GARY ALCOCK