Frantic Bleep

Though seemingly announcing itself as gothic rock with its opening chords, Frantic Bleep’s The Sense Apparatus quickly deconstructs that false impression and begins to fracture into slivers of melodic and rhythmic experimentation. Frantic Bleep is a fairly new addition to the Norwegian metal scene; The Sense Apparatus is their debut, and provides further evidence for their home country’s disproportionate concentration of musical creativity. Vaguely psychedelic, nearly new wave-ish, a whispering of industrial, and appropriating classical, the album spins an eerie web of fantasy, donning shrouds of subtle atmosphere as often as it threatens to erupt into chaos. Somewhere between progressive and the avant-garde, Frantic Bleep’s unpredictability is offset by a nod to tradition, grounded in fairytale realms and human experience.