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Frantic Bleep
The Sense Apparatus

Wicked name, wicked band. The Sense Apparatus is the unexpected metal album of 2005 in much the same way as Mastodon’s Leviathan was for 2004 (though this is not quite in that league). This is unashamed metal, with 80s guitar solos and thrash riffs. Frantic Bleep are well aware that this is 2005, though, and have added to their Ride The Lightning starting point by introducing mellow Dark Side Of The Moon era Pink Floyd-esque sections to many of their tracks, which make the thumping riffery all the more potent when it pops up. This is the sound of a man being brutally smashed against a door, only for him to land on a lovely bed of delicate flowers. It seems to me interesting that, at a time when Metallica have abandoned solos and intricate guitar work (see their most recent album, St. Anger) as being too outdated, Frantic Bleep (a band clearly influenced by an earlier Metallica incarnation) have used those very things to sound fresh and vital. Fast and powerful, crafted but at times frantic (obviously), I’m glad there are still bands who can come along and make metal worth listening to, because for a long time I have found the vast majority of it to be generic tripe.

This is a kind of a modern …And Justice For All.