Wexler's Prime - Fossil Constellation (2020)

I found out about Brendan Dean, the mainman and the only active member from this enterprise, quite a few years back when I came across Brought by Pain, a very cool technical/progressive death metal outfit. As said outfit was a side-project for the Beyond Creation lads, having curiously enough appeared at the same time as the main band’s debut, it should come as no surprise the similarities in the execution and the layout. However, the guys had surrendered the bass duties to a relative unknown, the man under scrutiny here, and his virtuous exploits with the four strings often came close to being the highlight on the entire initiative…

well, to nearly beat the Beyond Creation bunch at their own game (later the bass was occupied by another member of that act) was no small feat, and under the circumstances it was worth tracking down the man’s other involvements (the still active Pronostic & Gutvoid; the already extinct Adytum) all of those operating within similar prog/tech-death confines. And please note that on these other endeavours he also shows his vocal and axeman skills.

A multi-talent in other words who shines really bright here, on his own offspring, where he provides everything for the production of a really captivating progressive metal opus. The resultant conglomerate borders on the extreme metal furies at times, but this is pulled out with more finesse and coherence, nicely touching another notable prog-metal entity, the Brits Linear Sphere, and the very cool weirdos Last Scattering as well, also from Canada. The debut was a multi-tentacled creation, stretching into quite a few directions with fusion, power, thrash, psychedelia and death metal showing up for an audition at various stages, the man outdoing himself on the valiant adventurous 20-min closer “Of Dust and Dreams II: Divagation”.

An awe-inspiring beginning which has its very worthy sequel here; the delivery is overall more aggressive with thrash occupying the front seat for at least half the time, helping Dean in the stirring of bewitching vortex-like rifforamas on “Petrify” with the old and the new school courted along the way, the man assisting the entangled parade with a steady clean mid-ranged baritone, occasionally scaring away the audience with a brutal deathy growl. Lighter spacier numbers (“Idol Hands”) also work their magic in a less obtrusive, sophisticated fashion, but it’s on the darker more threatening material (the brooding Zero Hour-esque “In Between”, the spastic death/thrash marvel “Diodes”) where Dean really shines with a wide array of time and tempo changes, sudden pace shifts, and complex lead sections. There are three epic-length progressivers with “Cedars” alone closing on 21-min, all of them micro universes reflecting the nuances and influences on which this album has been built, with sometimes fusion-esque psychedelia leading the pack, sometimes more brutal thrash/deathy strokes rudely rushing in, sometimes contrived riff-formulas throwing the listener in dizzy spasms…

there’s a lot of music to savour, the album is about 1.5 hours long, and several listens would be required for one to grasp everything. Dean artfully juggles between styles and motifs without staying on a particular one for too long thus avoiding outstaying-its-welcome pitfalls. Show-offy passages are very rarely encountered, and if they are, they are of the more flamboyant lead pyrotechnic type as the man doesn’t put the bass up front as much like it was the case on the Brought by Pain stint; one may wish to hear more expressive four-string exploits but those aren’t that amply provided. There’s a pleiad of bewitching riff-patterns, though, and the latter should more than suffice to keep the fans entranced for most of the time… after all, we’re talking a fairly long epic journey…

a journey that reaches towards other constellations where listening and composing complex multi-faceted music is a daily routine, and where archaeologists, astrologers and astronomers have regular gatherings to discuss and respectively select some of us, the mere mortals from down here, whom they deem worthy to join them. And Brendan Dean should be very high on their list.