Fractal Gates - Beyond The Self
18 February 2013
01. Visions VII
02. Dissonance
03. Everblaze
04. On Your Own
05. The Sign
06. Visions VIII
07. Timeless
08. We Are All Leaders
09. Reverse Dawn
10. Mighty Wings
11. The Experiment
12. Beyond The Self
13. Glooms Of Cyan
14. Visions IX
The French melodic death band Fractal Gates establish a coherent album with a touch of dynamism in Beyond The Self. While it bears a strong consistency to their core sound which is at the meatier end of the subgenre's spectrum it displays the earnest ability to add considerable variation to the compositions.
They have high strung gothenburg melodies emboldened by dense bass partnered with efficient drums and death growls. Many tracks are well tempered to a hammered rhythm which stays the course of the album. Plenty of those emotion triggering leads strike out at you from its solid base such as tracks "On Your Own" or "Reverse Dawn" as well as those packing more of an Amon Amarth bass punch like "Dissonance", "We Are All Leaders" and "Mighty Wings."
Working some diversity into the instrumentation significantly aids the songwriting; "Timeless" has its excellent use of gothic tinged warps of lead guitar which might bring Paradise Lost to mind, of all bands to reference. And the melodies of that track also bear a progressive taste not unlike the work of Alchemist.
While the rest of the album is more or less in a more composite style, the use of clean vocals, provided here by none other than Dan Swano who also mixed and mastered the record, add just that much more variance. Tempo gets its fair share of changes throughout the record as well, a notable example being "Gloom Of Cyan", a highlight which has sections more of the melodic death/doom variety with its longer moody pace and melody.
I can't say I understand the purpose of the three short tracks entitled "Visions", here numbered VII, VIII and IX. VIII is placed near the centre of the album and seems only to interrupt the flow of things. Perhaps such is for the best though as the album can be quite a lot to chew on in a single listen.
Beyond The Self isn't the kind of album that will shift the earth beneath your feet in terms of its dynamics but it is prone to the uplifting and occasionally varied harmony of riff and melody.
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 8
Production: 8
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