One of the finest albums to arise out of the shoegazing trend coating the early 1990s, Ferment is rich, lush, and wrenching. For what it's worth, Catherine Wheel get a mention in the liner notes of the Smashing Pumpkins' S... more »iamese Dream. Perhaps it's indicative of the fact that this album rocks a little harder than the genre-defining releases from the likes of the Stone Roses, the Charlatans, and the Inspiral Carpets. Ferment includes guitar solos, albeit tasteful guitar solos, that most of Catherine Wheel's contemporaries would have balked at. Later releases abandon the ethereal noise wash, leaning a little more toward the sound of their admirers the Pumpkins. A beautiful, spiraling release, Ferment is pliable but impenetrable. --Beth Bessmer« less
One of the finest albums to arise out of the shoegazing trend coating the early 1990s, Ferment is rich, lush, and wrenching. For what it's worth, Catherine Wheel get a mention in the liner notes of the Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream. Perhaps it's indicative of the fact that this album rocks a little harder than the genre-defining releases from the likes of the Stone Roses, the Charlatans, and the Inspiral Carpets. Ferment includes guitar solos, albeit tasteful guitar solos, that most of Catherine Wheel's contemporaries would have balked at. Later releases abandon the ethereal noise wash, leaning a little more toward the sound of their admirers the Pumpkins. A beautiful, spiraling release, Ferment is pliable but impenetrable. --Beth Bessmer
"I fell in love with these guys in high school. While the rest of my suburban classmates were listening to either The Fugees or Hootie and the Blowfish (oh how fun it was being an outcast in that school) - I lucked out and thankfully stumbled upon Catherine Wheel.
I remember taking guitar lessons when I was 15, and when I got decent enough my instructor said if I wanted to learn how to play a song, he'd teach me. So, I brought my copy of Ferment in and told him he had to teach me how to play Black Metallic. To my novice glee, it was quite easy to play. This is what I found so wonderful about it. A song with just a few chords that ended up being THAT timeless and brilliant, on a band's first album, made me love the song even more than I already did. Recently I saw Rob play on his solo tour... After playing an acoustic Black Metallic, he laughed and said something along the lines of "ah, Thank God for Black Metallic... things would've been a lot different if that one had never been made!" ;)
I Want To Touch You, Indigo Is Blue and She's My Friend are my other favorites... And Ferment isn't even one of my favorite CW albums.
It is such a crime that they never got the recognition they deserved... Rob may be thankful for Black Mettalic - I'm just thankful for discovering Catherine Wheel when I did. How different things would've been had I become a Hootie and the Blowfish fan ;)"
"Imagine a light that never escapes you"
mwreview | Northern California, USA | 03/11/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"As soon as I saw the music video for "Black Metallic" on MTV's 120 Minutes back in my high school days, I knew I had to have this album. Ferment is unbelievable and Catherine Wheel instantly became one of my favorite bands of the 1990s. Ferment was their debut album and has a more raw, stuffy sound than their next recordings. It has very loud guitars and drums but the songs are also very melodic and catchy. "Texture" really rocks and is an excellent opening track, hooking the listener right away. "I Want To Touch You" is very catchy and is perhaps, next to "Balloon," the most accessible track on Ferment. It was also released as a single. "Black Metallic" is heavy but is also one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard and the album version clocks in at over 7 minutes. It is amazing, especially when the guitars kick in again after the quiet interlude towards the end. Other favorites of mine include the rocking "Shallow," "Tumbledown" which has a beautiful melodic guitar that turns into a blazing riff, "Bill and Ben," the catchy "Salt" with the kickin' drums, and the fun Ba-B-Ba-Ba-"Balloon." The title track is interesting. It is very quiet and soothing and just explodes with headbangin' guitar. Catherine Wheel's later albums may be better produced with crisper sound, but Ferment is, perhaps, their most solid release. No weak tracks here at all. One final note: the lead singer is Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson's cousin! How cool is that?!"
Bathe yourself in guitar-wash.
D. Knouse | vancouver, washington United States | 01/28/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Imagine a band with all the melodicism of The Stone Roses debut album mixed with guitar flourishes reminiscent of Sonic Youth's "Daydream Nation." That's what this album sounds like to me. Catherine Wheel often bombard the listener with walls of guitar bombast that threaten to drown out the rhythm section but somehow, through excellent production techniques no doubt, the drums hold their own and the bass is actually as memorable in moments as the lead guitar work. Thanks to the bass playing, in fact, the songs never lose direction with all the lead guitar theatrics creatively washing over the listener in waves of crashing guitar-pedal mayhem. Standout tracks are everywhere, so it is really a pointless exercise on my part to point them out. For what it's worth, "I Want To Touch You" and "Bill and Ben" are magnificent concoctions that explode through my brain with every spin of this CD. But there is not a weak track on the album, and the depth of the songwriting is both emotionally and instrumentally rewarding. Pick up this CD, turn the volume way up, and bathe yourself in the rich guitar-wash of Catherine Wheel's "Ferment." Highly recommended."
They were never shoegazers proper...
poniesforchrist | Brooklyn, NY United States | 01/25/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"although i hesitate to refer to catherine wheel as ever qualifying as "shoegazers" ('loveless' and 'souvlaki' are the best examples of that genre) due to CW's more up-front songwriting tendencies, i do think that this excellent LP evokes similar feelings in the (lucky) listener...rob dickinson's extraordinary voice (one of the loveliest male voices in all of rock music) is prominently featured over the depth charges of guitar, rather than the reverse (Shoegazing 101)...anyway, this is a truly wonderful album, with nary a single track being forgettable...CW has since faltered album after album, trying to be more "rock" and/or "pop" really has never suited them, and all of their albums after 'chrome' are not very good, in spite of what hardcore fans may attest...'ferment' features a few standout tracks and a wealth of lovely "supporting cast members"...the title track and 'black metallic' are both stunning, as if the band had tapped into the emotional heart of what the real shoegazers were missing...regardless of the lyrics, dickinson's vox and the shimmering, hissing, soaring guitar torrents make for beautiful stuff...'indigo is blue' has a perfectly timed pause before its guitar solo (don't let the phrase "guitar solo" scare you off), and also makes gorgeous use of dickinson's uniquely "hollow" vocal style...the words to "salt" are mostly unintelligible (perhaps CW were gazing shoeward on occasion), yet the song gallops along gracefully, with peals of feedback buried behind the wall of guitars in its fadeout...like slowdive's 'machine gun', the song manages to be moving without any sort of decipherable lyrical hook...anyone interested in the kind of lush rock music that doesn't seem to get made anymore as frequently as it did during the early 90's (nowadays we get tweeness, soulless post-rock, over-earnest emo schmaltz, and so forth) should absolutely seek out 'ferment'...the follow-up, 'chrome', is structured in a very similar way ('texture' is to 'kill rhythm' as 'black metallic' is to 'pain') and is also worthwhile...the shivers that raced up my spine years ago during 'black metallic's quiet bridge are easily brought back on every listen...this record should be cherished..."
A Different Perspective from these Other Reviews . . .
Rich Latta | Albuquerque, NM - Land of Entitlement | 04/14/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Catherine Wheel is (was) one of my favorite bands, so I'd like to guide new listeners toward what I consider to be their greatest album (despite the opinions of certain FERMENT fans on this forum) -- CHROME. The best songs on CHROME (in particular, "Broken Head" and "Pain") reach the absolute pinnacle of "shoegazer," known for its sensuous walls of atmosphere derived primarily from mutated guitar textures.
FERMENT does contain CW's signature song and blueprint of things to come, "Black Metallic," a worthy underground hit and still one of their best songs ever. But most of the other songs on this CD do not represent their best songwriting, to be perfectly honest. While "I Want to Touch You" and "She's My Friend" are good songs, the "shoegaze" sound is underdeveloped on these tracks as it is on most of FERMENT.
I consider FERMENT to be an evolutionary step toward the majestic brilliance of CHROME (see my review, if you so choose), not as good but still a worthy addition to my CD collection and, considered as a whole, a more consistent album than CHROME. However, you should note that my opinion may be rather unorthodox according to your typical CW acolyte. Another unorthodox view: I like the actual songs on HAPPY DAYS more than the ones on FERMENT (overall) even though they largely abandoned the shoegazer sound on HAPPY DAYS. Therefore, you might want to take my opinion with a grain of salt (as you should with all opinions, really) . . ."