Fractal Universe “Rhizomes of Insanity”
Album Review By Adam McCann
Metal Blade Records/Technical/Progressive Death Metal
France’s Fractal Universe exploded onto the scene two years ago with their superb debut album ‘Engram of Decline’. That album stole the hearts of critics and fans alike who then began to eagerly await the next offering from the French quartet. Luckily, Fractal Universe would not keep us waiting and have delivered their sophomore album ‘Rhizomes of Insanity’.
‘Rhizomes…’ is a worthy successor for the debut album, it is equally parts melodic and technical, whilst perfectly blending the bands progressive and death metal elements, all the while supplying this undercurrent to an overarching concept of insanity and thought experimentation. However, ‘Rhizomes…’ is nowhere near as complex as that sounds; the album may be a tour de force in musical virtuosity, but it certainly does not have any of the inaccessibility that is usually a stigma of this genre. This allows tracks such as ‘Parabola Of Silence’, ‘A Reality To Foreclosure’ and ‘Architectural Aberrations’ to become stand-out songs, appealing to fans of Obscura, Gorod, Cynic and 90’s Death.
Yet the only pedantic quibble with ‘Rhizomes…’ is that the album demands to be played in full to get its full effect and taken separately, many of the songs lose their impact. This means that in today’s world of convenience where the listening is a superficial run of skip, track, skip, skip, skip mantra of streaming does mean many will not appreciate the power and enjoyability that ‘Rhizomes…’ holds. However, there are still those who do and it is these fans which will thoroughly enjoy this album; ‘Rhizomes…’ is an album written by fans of music, for fans of music and for those who do, this album will be very enjoyable.
Rating : 80/100
MHF Magazine/Adam McCann
