Fractal Gates - Altered State Of Consciousness review
Band: | Fractal Gates |
Album: | Altered State Of Consciousness |
Style: | Melodic death metal |
Release date: | 2009 |
A review by: | Jeff |
01. Visions 1
02. Altered State Of Consciousness
03. Gates To Nebula
04. Inertia
05. Visions 2
06. Immersion
07. The Eclipse
08. Visions 3
09. Skies Of Orion
10. The Encounte
11. Visions 4
12. Illusional Dementia
13. Departure
14. Visions 5
When Stéphane Peudupin and Sébastien Pierre (both members of Inborn Suffering and Lethian Dreams) decide to create a new band, they rarely do any big mistakes. No needs to talk about their two other projects but let's focus on Fractal Gates their last creation today. Surprisingly this new combo is not Doom but more Death and Progressive. That's cool of course but it's great to see that our guys can do some other kind of Metal if they want, and here that's good Metal so?
Fractal Gates is a bit like the meeting of Paradise Lost with Dark Tranquillity. On a side the music of the band is melodic, with electronic and ambient parts like on the last Dark Tranquillity but this is also really dark and oppressing like on the first Paradise Lost. It's not so hard to find that the main influences of the compositors directly comes from Doom Death, Fractal Gates music is melodic Death ok but the melodies and ambiances are depressing and gloomy. The album doesn't really feature mega hits but all the songs are catchy with sumptuous riffs and melodies. You won't be disappointed by this release and I'm quite sure that you'll like all the songs. Sure maybe that it could be a bit more personal on a side but I quite like the fact that despite the main melodic Death orientation we can still find Doom spirit in "Altered State Of Consciousness".
Even if the sound can be a bit too loud sometime, the recording of the album is really good. Also the sumptuous digipack with an excellent cover art (directly linked to the main lyrics theme of the album) is a great way to show that the band is not a simple "other project". The lyrics are also well written and talk about science fictions and philosophical theme. It's not really common in the Metal scene (not new too of course?) but has its own charm and interests. "Altered State Of Consciousness" is a refreshing album played and composed by really inspired musicians; I really hope that some people will have an eye on it (and on them) because we're in front of real good Metal compositors.
"Altered State Of Consciousness" is a great beginning. Accessible without being stupid and commercial, this first release should attract all the metalheads who use to listen to deep melodic Death. The sad ambiance of the album does the difference even if the melodies are not so new actually? Don't miss this release, the whole CD (music like production) worth its money anyway. Great start, great band, I will keep an eye on Fractal Gates, their future is just full of hopes.
Rating breakdown
Performance: | 8 |
Songwriting: | 8 |
Originality: | 7 |
Production: | 8 |
Written by Jeff | 18.07.2009
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