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MJBrady
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Published on: 13 Feb 2008
First, I am admittedly a big fan of Ron Jarzombek's music, most everything he has done is both original and mind-boggling, so I was pretty psyched about this new "band" that he was forming, as I knew it would not be your typical band in the traditional style. Blotted Science is yet another chapter in what is continuing to be Ron Jarzombek's twisted and demented world of technical metal, it's never an easy endeavor as one might imagine, to create music that requires such strict and dedicated discipline. That challenge seems to have become RJ's forte as a guitarist / composer/ artist, he continues to push the parameters of complexity in creating an artform that defies any real comparisons, when one ask's "what is technical metal?", well the best answer I can give them is...."Ron Jarzombek", he is just that, whether it's the Watchtower stuff, Spastic Ink, his solo cds, and now this. he alone has not only defined a genre of music, but serves as the utmost epitome of standards for anyone willing to join in the endeavor to exist within the genre.
For Blotted Science, Jarzombek sought some musicians that not only would compliment his musical ideas, but would have the skills and dedication to bring the necessary sound and feel to his compositional inventions, after all, most musicians don't sit around trying to learn how to play like this!?!? So, it would be a lengthy ordeal to get the right players, and for them to learn their parts in a way where they would sound natural and complimentary, while in a setting where mistakes would sound glaringly out of sync, if not blatantly horrendous. So after having drummers Chris Adler (Lamb of God)
and then Derek Roddy (Hate Eternal, Nile) depart, in comes Charlie Zeleny (BEHOLD......The Arctopus), who's music is actually in the same neighborhood as Blotted Science, he proves to be a perfect fit, not only meeting the techical demands of Blotted Sciences' material, but he shows flare in doing it much like RJ's brother Bobby Jarzombek did with the Spastic Ink material.
On bass - Alex Webster (Cannible Corpse/Hate Eternal) joins in, his is a style that is well suited for this music, and he has the combination of aggression and technical proficiency to lend the right sound to Jarzombeks' writing and playing styles. As one would expect, this combination of musicians makes a fitting team for what the music of Blotted Science demands.
It would be hard to differentiate what Blotted Science is doing musically from what Ron has done with Spastic Ink, or even Charley's band Behold... the Arctopus for that matter. Yet while I hear the same levels of audacious creativity, there seems to be more angst and aggression with Blotted Science apart from the other bands. As you would with any technical metal, be prepared to study, this is not music for casual sittings, or to listen to while cleaning the house. One needs to decipher the encoded aspects of it's very structures to ensure a full comprehension of it's intended purpose, which I now believe is to baffle the listener, which it does.
Blotted Science is complexity at it's utmost, it's also brutally heavy, and shows extreme displays of musical virtue. Yet behind all of that, there is a concept, a science if you will, where each song pertains to some aspect of sleep disorders, that is where you start to comprehend the music behind the notes and beats, and where science meets art, however blotted the picture, the ink remains as spastic as it ever was.
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