Fracturus – The Synthetic Path

Out of Montreal comes Fracturus, a self-described death metal band currently occupied with exploring humanity’s transformation into the digital. The promotional material speaks of a digital parasite that merges with our minds and humanity becoming enslaved by machines. I’m getting strong whiffs of both The Matrix and Baldur’s Gate 3, which is not a bad start.

But, as I’ve stated numerous times before, lyrics are not my forte when it comes to music, especially not metal. This is death metal and I’ll happily admit that I have no idea what is being said in any death metal song. I treat the voice as an instrument and I will chiefly be focused on the instrumental parts making up this album, but I find it important to mention the sci-fi setup, because it is mirrored in the actual music, not just the lyrics.

The Synthetic Path is Fracturus’ second album and it follows a debut that received pretty decent reviews without catapulting the band into stardom. For me, The Synthetic Path is my first meeting with these Canadians and I have no idea what to expect going in. The album-titled opener makes what’s to come, very, very clear.

Track one, The synthetic Path, opens with spacey electro and some heavy synth, before a chugging riff slowly appears and the whole thing becomes a heavy djent piece with hefty doses of death metal, rooted in technical avant-garde metal. At no points do Fracturus give in to the temptation of melody on this opening track.

This is a very strong tone setter. You know what you’re in for after this ferocious opener, but you’re also aware that you’re likely to be surprised and might need to brace yourself for some hard-left turns and constant sonic assaults throughout thee album, because that’s just how these guys roll.

Track 2, “obsolescence”, is riff-heavy with furious pace, featuring soaring guitars, lots of blast beats and classic death metal, short jazz-inspired sections, and ends up being an all-around complex, technical, brutal metal feast.

It is worth having a slightly longer conversation about track number 3, “The Created Divine”. Critics tend to be strong believers in album construction, bands and (predominantly) producers are often strong believers in the construction of songs designed for radio. “The Created Divine” is the first of two such tracks on this album and I’m encouraged by the fact that it is indeed placed as track number 3, because this is where the big, attention-grabbing song “should” be placed.

So far, we’ve been served two tracks relatively devoid of melody, and “The Created Divine” starts out primarily evoking Meshuggah, before a sudden injection of dark melody rushes through the djenty goodness. The voice is part Jens Kidman, part nu-metal without venturing too far into clean-vocal territory. Fracturus manages the balance between true death metal vocals and the more melodic aspects needed for a radio-track better than most. They never sell out, instead, they incorporate melodic elements on their own terms: the vocals shift from death metal to gnarly, Bay Area-inspired wails, and the melody comes in form of short guitar solos and unexpected synths.

And it carries on in that way. Through “Panoptic Lividity” they stay true to the djent whilst playing with soaring solos and mournful atmospheres, staying both daring and fresh. “Parasitic Mind Collapse” is a catchy death metal track truly shows off the bands technical abilities without feeling forced or unnecessary, elements that are reinforced by “Roko’s Basilisk”, the clearest death metal track on the whole album.

Then we arrive at the second to last track, “Alpha Machine Directive”. I’m a sucker for testosterone-filled, in-your-face metal, and this song drips of it. It’s technical, heavy as fuck, reminds me of early thrash-legends like Exodus whilst still carrying plenty of djent and death metal, and the guttural vocals just forces you to throw up the horns.

“Grace to Man” is a worthy end to a fantastic album, mainly thanks to some standout drumming that seems to draw inspiration from both jazz and black metal, but it is “Alpha Directive” that stands alone as the real high-point of this album for me.

And then, we’re done. Sadly, because this is one hell of a sophomore effort. The Synthetic Path is fast, ferocious, authentic, and true to all that’s metal. There is as close as you get to zero selling out from Fracturus on this album, yet they manage to merge djent, math-metal, electro, black metal, death metal and a long list of other stuff into an album you never want to put down. https://www.facebook.com/Fracturus