Album · Catherine Wheel
Ferment by Catherine Wheel
Ferment is an album by Catherine Wheel, released in 1992. 2 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 48 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Black Metallic”, on 47 lists with a best position of #15.
Ferment, Catherine Wheel's debut album, came out on Fontana in 1992, and it's a gorgeous, swirling haze of a record from a band out of Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Tim Friese-Greene and John Lee produced it, blending the band's shoegaze roots with alternative rock and a neo-psychedelic glow that they would never return to.
Guitars shimmer, drone and swell into walls of sound, the rhythm section keeps a steady, hypnotic pulse, and the vocals drift through the fog with a sweetness that keeps it all human. "Black Metallic" is the showpiece, a slow-burning epic that builds and builds. The album wasn't much of a hit, but it got the band noticed, and it has kept winning over critics and fans in the decades since. The follow-up, Chrome, made with Gil Norton, pushed them in a new direction.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Ferment on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Black Metallic | 47 | #15 | – | 1991–2026 | |
| 2 | Texture | 1 | #602 | – | 2024 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.