FRACTURED

"Fractured" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US technical death/thrash act Capharnaum. The album was released through Willowtip Records in February 2004. Capharnaum´s debut album "Reality Only Fantasized" dates as far back as 1997 and the only remaining members from that album are the founders of the band brothers Jason (guitars, vocals) and Jordan (Drums) Suecof. The lineup on "Fractured" features a couple of pretty prolific gentlemen in addition to the Suecof brothers in Daniel Mongrain (Martyr) on lead guitars, Mike Poggione (Eulogy, Lecherous Nocturne, Scab Maggot, Execration, Monstrosity) on bass and Matt Heafy (Trivium, Mindscar) on lead vocals. The album only features 8 tracks and a total playing time of 29:42 minutes. Needless to say that this is a very short album and some people might feel that they don´t get enough quantity for their money. I prefer quality over quantity any day though and if the quality is as high as it is on this album I´m more than satisfied with a 29:42 minutes long album.

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.