Capharnaum "Fractured" CD
[Willowtip]
Hot damn was I psyched to finally hold this fucker in my hands! I had heard a handful of songs from this band in the past, but this shit is gold. If you're into technical death metal you should just stop reading and go buy this immediately. On these recordings this Florida band contains members of Martyr, Monstrosity, and Trivium, along with chief band members (brothers) Jason and Jordan Suecof, but they don't sound like any of those bands. They definitely have the heart of all of the best of the best Florida death metal bands going strong (Cynic, Atheist, Death, you name it), but they definitely avoid sounding like any of those bands as well. The writing is fast and complex, performed with absolutely perfect precision and a great sense of melody that brings in a light Scandinavian influence without at all sounding generic or commonplace. The drumming is fucking ridiculous it's so incredible! I'm talking equal parts Sean Reinert (Cynic, Gordian Knot) and Peter Wildoer (Darkane) with flashy fills and sweet cymbal work as well as excellent patterns and more subdued beats as well. The solos are always really melodic and well composed, and they shred like nothing I've heard in many, many years. Fuck, they even credit the solos in with the lyrics! I love that shit! I haven't seen that done in so long... and I miss that! The core of the songs are just fast and vicious riffs with tons of alternate picking and insane runs crammed into well written songs that tend to stick to less than three or four minutes in length. Every now and then a truly slow break will get tossed out (see "Icon of Malice"), but they tend to keep the energy level high without getting boring. Amazing. I don't think anything about the recording is a problem at all. I love the guitar tone as it's heavy but perfectly harnessed and clear, the roaring vocal snarls are forceful and don't jump out in front of the music, the drums are a little rigid but kept in check by the mix (plus the performance is so impressive that it doesn't even matter), and the bass peeks through just a little. If I could change anything I might warm up some of the percussion and up the bass guitar a tad, but this thing sounds like a million bucks for the most part. Most of the layout is totally awesome too, with great abstract textures and a minimal color scheme, as well as some dirty text that looks excellent (especially the band logo). The only thing I don't like is that one of the fonts (the one used the most) is too clean and plain to fit in with how great everything else looks (especially on the back cover), so it almost comes off looking like an afterthought. The lyrics are nothing special, but I've seen worse, and this is a CD that's definitely about the music, not the vocals. Anyone who's into ripping technical death metal that's just nonstop fury had best purchase this. (9/10)
Running time - 29:36, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: Fractured, Perpetuate Catatonia, The Scourge of Trial]
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