CHIMP SPANNER

Chimp Spanner... a somewhat ludicrous but somehow memorable name. And if you've ever seen them live, then you would have noticed they perform to a backdrop of banners displaying cartoon chimp heads positioned above a couple of spanners. So just as it says on the tin then. Chimp Spanner is actually the pseudonym of Paul Oritz, something of a guitar virtuoso and the man responsible for this rather exhilarating slab of instrumental prog-metal. And the idiosyncrasy of his adopted moniker is perfectly fitting for the instrumentally iconoclastic nature of the music. Some would have you believe Chimp Spanner fit into the djent subgenre of prog-metal, although the aesthetic is far more diverse than a cacophony of Meshuggah style polyrhythms, albeit down-tuned, palm-muted 8-string guitars do feature heavily throughout 'All Roads Lead Here. So prog-metal with djent leanings is a more apposite description. Oritz is someone who sounds at perfect ease with his instrument, kind of effortless virtuosity which is a positive quality of his music in that it never sounds like his high skill level is being thrown in your face, rather intelligently deployed with compositional relevance in the context of six instrumental tracks. Interestingly, that wasn't actually true during my experience of Chimp Spanner as a fully-fledged live band - there were certain passages where I felt more distanced from the music and admiring Oritz' technical ability rather than being absorbed the sounds he made. Perhaps, then, Chimp Spanner are best digested in recorded format without the visual distraction of virtuosity in front of your eyes. Maybe that's just my personal preference but whatever the case, 'All Roads Lead Here' is an infectious blend of down-tuned tech-metal riffage mixed up with some ambient, spacey sonics and mind-blowing lead work. Great stuff.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Basick Records

EP

ALL ROADS LEAD HERE

Review by Mark Holmes

RUNNING TIME:

25:01

RELEASE DATE:

6th Feb 2012

TRACK LISTING

1) Dark Age of Technology
2) Engrams
3) Möbius Pt I
4) Möbius Pt II
5) Möbius Pt III
6) Cloud City

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

UK

"...an infectious blend of down-tuned tech-metal riffage mixed up with some ambient, spacey sonics and mind-blowing lead work."