Mari Maurice, best known as More Eaze, is practically an industry unto herself, and fibril is her metal division, glitching hulking industrial riffage the same way she glitches pop and ambient. The Rot marks fibril’s transformation from solo project to full band, as Maurice brings on guitarist Matthew Seidel and Fuck Money drumming behemoth Alton Jenkins to further plumb fragmented pasts. “Distracted Parking Lots” hits like your favorite Roadrunner Records bangers of yore, submerged in aqueous murk that comes from shitty 64 Kbps Napster downloads. Forget Korn’s tracksuits, that’s commitment to aesthetic. Maurice’s signature Auto-Tune vocals break through the muffled thunder, adding a melodic dimension that skips between timelines, 2010s atomization serving Nineties angst. While nü metal is having a moment, fibril looks beyond cheap nostalgia, more interested in finding a form to stretch. Closer “Wasted” brings Deftones’ hushed sleaze to the fore, where lurching overdriven bass, Jenkins’ finesse, and a yearning vocal speak volumes. Nü metal is far from the only sound dissected and reassembled – The Rot is a testament to lonely nights with an overactive mind and a DC++ file-sharing account. “Exposed Nerve” is blackened cybergrind, alternating between screeches and machine-gun-staccato bass drums; “Weigh the Rot” leans closer to their skewed metalgaze origins with even more tender anguish. Fringe sounds and radio-rock castoffs melt into each other in a junk fresco, blunted and beautiful.
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The Rot (Debacle)This article appears in August 18 • 2023.