Colin Marston and Mike Lerner had already spent more than eighteen months collaborating on guitar before locating a drummer capable of matching the rapid, technically demanding style of progressive metal they had developed. After uploading a pair of drum-machine demos to the internet, the pair—Marston handling the Warr guitar, a twelve-string instrument spanning the registers of both bass and guitar and typically executed through tapping, while Lerner played electric guitar—encountered Charlie Zeleny. Zeleny immediately demonstrated his fit by performing one of their compositions during their initial session, prompting an on-the-spot invitation to become the third member of Behold...The Arctopus. Drawing from metal and twentieth-century classical traditions alongside jazz’s spontaneous approach, the trio issued their debut full-length album, Nano-Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning, in 2006; the release merged the three-song EP of the identical title with their earlier recording Arctopocalypse Now...Warmageddon Later and four live tracks.
