| The Machinations of Dementia | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 18, 2007 | |||
| Recorded | 2006–2007, Live Oak Studios, Hell Whole Studios, Doc Z Studios | |||
| Genre | Progressive metal, instrumental rock | |||
| Length | 57:12 | |||
| Label | EclecticElectric | |||
| Producer | Ron Jarzombek | |||
| Blotted Science chronology | ||||
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The Machinations of Dementia is the sole studio album by the instrumental progressive metal band Blotted Science, released September 18, 2007, on guitarist Ron Jarzombek's EclecticElectric label. It was issued in Japan on June 22, 2011, via Marquee/Avalon. [1]
Progressive metal is a fusion genre melding heavy metal and progressive rock that combines the loud "aggression" and amplified guitar-driven sound of the former with the more experimental, cerebral or "pseudo-classical" compositions of the latter.
Blotted Science is an instrumental progressive metal supergroup headed by Ron Jarzombek, bassist Alex Webster and drummer Hannes Grossmann. They formed under the name Machinations of Dementia, but later changed their name to Blotted Science.
Contents
The album had been in the making since 2005, but progress stalled when original drummer Chris Adler had to bow out due to commitments with his band Lamb of God; his successor, Derek Roddy (ex-Nile, Hate Eternal), left over "musical differences" after a six-month tenure.
Lamb of God is an American heavy metal band from Richmond, Virginia. Formed in 1994 as Burn the Priest, the group consists of bassist John Campbell, drummer Chris Adler, vocalist Randy Blythe, and guitarists Mark Morton and Willie Adler. The band is considered a significant member of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal movement.
Derek Roddy is an American drummer and snake breeder, originally from Deerfield Beach, Florida. His ability to record entire drum tracks in one or two takes earned him the nickname "One Take".
Nile is an American death metal band from Greenville, South Carolina, United States, formed in 1993. Their music and lyrics are inspired by Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern mysticism, history, religion, and ancient art, as well as the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
According to Ron Jarzombek, "75 percent" [2] of The Machinations of Dementia was written utilizing the "Circle of 12 Tones", derived from the twelve-tone technique pioneered by Austrian-born composer Arnold Schoenberg in the 1920s.
The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition first devised by Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer, who published his "law of the twelve tones" in 1919. In 1923, Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) developed his own, better-known version of 12-tone technique, which became associated with the "Second Viennese School" composers, who were the primary users of the technique in the first decades of its existence. The technique is a means of ensuring that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are sounded as often as one another in a piece of music while preventing the emphasis of any one note through the use of tone rows, orderings of the 12 pitch classes. All 12 notes are thus given more or less equal importance, and the music avoids being in a key. Over time, the technique increased greatly in popularity and eventually became widely influential on 20th-century composers. Many important composers who had originally not subscribed to or even actively opposed the technique, such as Aaron Copland and Igor Stravinsky, eventually adopted it in their music.
Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg was an Austrian, and later American, composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. He was associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School. With the rise of the Nazi Party, Schoenberg's works were labeled degenerate music, because they were modernist and atonal. He emigrated to the United States in 1933.
