Fermentor is a San Diego-based two-piece instrumental metal band formed in 2008 by drummer Dylan Marks (Atheist, Beekeeper) and guitarist Adam “Wally” Wollach (Beekeeper, TrashAxis). Stripping away the comforts of a traditional band infrastructure, Fermentor relies solely on communicating through only two elements; drums and guitar. The two instruments acting more like contrapuntal voices, rather than just rhythm and melody.

Dissonance laden black metal

Tardigrade sounds like a math equation gone wildly off the rails: heavy riffs, tangled time signatures, and flashes of jazz brilliance colliding into music that shouldn’t work — but absolutely does.