Paria The Barnacle Cordious
by Matthew Hoffman
Staff Writer
Formed in 2001 in Omaha, Neb., Paria creates numerous styles of metal music. Some may refer to parts of it as math-core or Nintendo-core as there are hundreds of odd time signatures and plenty of strange sounding noises that resemble video games throughout much of the bands music. There are also progressive metal and traditional metal cuts on this record as well.
The vocals from Brian are extreme and are screamed on every track of the album. Weirdly they neither add nor take anything significant from the malaise.
The guitars feature tons of wild crazy distortion techniques and some mildly distinguishable shred as well. The “shred” (on the math-core tracks) is far from the traditional neo-classical version you may be picturing but are fast notes played in scale format up and down the fret board almost to purposely annoy the listener and do not accentuate the music whatsoever. When the guitars are played seriously like on the lovely eight and a half minute journey (instrumental) “Pish Posh” they are clean, competent and spirited.
The top item given a chance to shine on this CD is the bass guitar efforts of Dustin. In each and every song there is a moment when you say “damn are those some sick ass notes.” Whether it’s the sick line dropped on “The Wallabee Dance Machine” or the deep bluesy line five minutes into the title track this kid can pluck his ass off.
The math-core songs aren’t traditional songs as you may expect just pieces of aggression mixed together in no certain way.
One of the times when the band shines in a musical light is the beautiful guitar and drum parts on the second cut “Circus.” Another is the brilliant lovely emotion dripping ten minute epic final track “I’ve Never Been Here Before in A Long Time.” Within the song you hear wonderful bass notes, soft percussion and cleanly played “rock” guitar.
“Bomb” shows the band’s capacity to create sickeningly good traditional modern metal as well.
Truly, this band should actually pursue doing only either serious progressive or experimental music instead of some math-core, some progressive and some dirty metal all on one disc.
Sadly though, not enough of the well played traditional metal exists on a The Barnacle Cordious to call it a classic offering and obviously it lacks a flow or cohesive feel to it, but there is enough talent shown here to give it a listen if you can stand the distracting math-core cuts (but that’s why they created a fast-forward button, now isn’t it).
Label: Metal Blade
Band Members
Andrew- Guitar
Brian- Vocals
Corey- Drums
Dustin- Bass
John- Guitar
Track Listing
1. The Barnacle Cordius
2. Circus
3. The Wallabee Dance Machine
4. Pish Posh
5. Bomb
6. Rabid McFly Grid
7. Thrash
8. Be
9. I’ve Never Been Here Before In A Long Time
HRH Rating: 7.1/10