CAPHARNAUM

The music on "Fractured" is technical death/thrash and fans of Death and especially Martyr should not think twice before spending their hard earned money on this album. Don´t despair when you see the name Matt Heafy here (if you aren´t that hooked on Trivium). There are no clean sung vocals on this album. Brutal death/thrash growls and aggressive singing is the vocal style on the album and that singing style is not really comparable to Matt Heafy´s vocal style on Trivium´s releases. The tracks are generally fast paced with excellent technical thrashy guitar riffing, lots of fast precision drumming, those above mentioned brutal vocals and some incredibly melodic guitar solos courtesy of Daniel Mongrain. The "Warp Zone (2000)" album by Martyr often comes to mind while listening to "Fractured". The only weak moment on this album are the closing minutes of the last track "Refusal" which sounds like the band jamming. To my ears that´s a waste of precious time when the album is as short as it is.

The sound production is professional, clear, and sharp and it brings out the best in the music. So everything from production, to musicianship, to compositions are high quality on "Fractured" and compared to the rather mediocre debut album Capharnaum have improved about 100% or something equally impressive. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

The music on the album is pretty standard US death metal. The music is generally pretty simple but the melodic guitar solos are well played and adds a more sophisticated dimension to the music. Featuring a total playing time of 25:13 minutes "Reality Only Fantasized" is one of the shorter albums out there, but as the quality of the music generally isn´t that high, I´m not really not complaining. The musicianship is decent and Capharnaum is a surprisingly tight act considering their, at the time, young age. The growling vocals sound pretty good too. The sound production is not professional sounding and doesn´t do the music much justice though and all in all "Reality Only Fantasized" isn´t the most interesting death metal album out there. It´s decent and that´s it. A 2.5 star (50%) rating is warranted.

Daniel Mongrain of Martyr (another tech death band on this list) on leads...(and outstanding they are)

overall there is a very jazzy undercurrent with all members involved. The vocals are gruff growling type. nothing out of the ordinary for this style.

Excellent stuff and highly recommended in the genre. A unique gem for sure.