Guitar showcases : First Fragment unveils new guitar playthrough for "Psychan"

First Fragment has released their 2nd guitar playthrough for the song "Psychan". Here is a statement from First Fragment about the video : "This is a song that was originally composed in 2004. Clocking in at barely 2 minutes and 30 seconds, no solos can be found on this song. It's a total riff fest. The song originally made its way on a single released in 2009, just before we did our debut MCD "The Afterthought Ecstasy". We later made the decision to re-record it for our 2016 album "Dasein".

https://youtu.be/mu_3ts6Z8qw

…a rare modern classic that people will be talking about for awhile… If you can imagine what it would sound like if Gorod, Spawn Of Possession, and Necrophagist joined forces with Jason Becker, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Origin’s shred influences… you’d arrive at the frequently eye-popping sonic territory that FIRST FRAGMENT occupies.” – Metal Injection

With the recent release of their debut album Dasein in May 2016, Montreal’s neoclassical tech death collective FIRST FRAGMENT has caught the attention of many guitar fanatics worldwide with their adventurous and eclectic sound. Combining ‘80s neoclassical metal, flamenco, and extreme metal influences, the music of FIRST FRAGMENT is a bold, over-the-top “monument of shred,” despite it’s structural and harmonic simplicity.

Captured at Humanoise Studios with Mathieu Marcotte (Augury, Humanoid) and mixed by Hugues Deslauriers (Augury, Defilementory, Vengeful etc.), the eleven-track Dasein features guest appearances from current and former members of Spawn Of Possession, Obscura, Inferi, Augury, and Elderoth, as well as artwork by Sam Nelson (Incandescence, Wayfarer, Stoic Dissention).

Order bundles for Dasein are currently available HERE. For digital purchases visit THIS LOCATION.

Metal Injection crowned the record a, “rare modern classic that people will be talking about for awhile,” further elaborating, “Dasein is indeed one of the most impressive and extreme tech-death debut albums I’ve heard in some time. If you can imagine what it would sound like if Gorod, Spawn Of Possession, and Necrophagist joined forces with Jason Becker, [Yngwie] Malmsteen, and Origin’s shred influences… you’d arrive at the frequently eye-popping sonic territory that FIRST FRAGMENT occupies.” Elsewhere the sentiment echoed. Dead Rhetoric wrote in a 9.5/10 review, “A technical death metal album that is downright pleasant on the ears, look to FIRST FRAGMENT to be seen in the same sentence as genre leaders like Gorod and Beyond Creation once the world is fully exposed to Dasein.” Last Rites concurred, “Dasein… is punishingly fast and overwhelmingly technical. It is, more than anything else, a monument to shred. Even so, FIRST FRAGMENT never falls prey to the common pitfalls of the style, because where tech death often feels sterile and academic, Dasein is playful, curious, and exuberant. The album is unremittingly melodic and neoclassical, with its stacked arpeggios sometimes sounding like a baroque fugue played on a harpsichord that has been dredged in liquid mercury.” In a 5/5 “classic” rating, Sputnik Music gushed, “It’s very difficult to make such a fast, in-your-face album and keep it consistent and intriguing per every song. This proves to be no trouble for FIRST FRAGMENT; Dasein absolutely earns a place amongst the best modern techdeath releases and deserves all the credit it gets. The tracks flow seamlessly with gorgeous melodies dominating the record.” In a 4.5/5 review, Heavy Blog Is Heavy noted, “Dasein is an album that could easily be pointed at as an archetypal technical death metal album. Basically a love letter to the genre, it’s infectiously memorable and groovy. Fans of the genre can find much to appreciate here, and it would serve as an excellent starting point for those looking to delve deeper as well. FIRST FRAGMENT have knocked it out of the park with their debut album, and shown yet again that there is something special about French Canada that leads to excellent tech death that is a must-listen.”

Formed in 2007, FIRST FRAGMENT quickly drew attention of the underground after releasing numerous demos, and their debut EP The Afterthought Ecstasy as a three piece. It wasn’t long until the band made their official entry in the scene afterwards with a full lineup until eventually getting the attention of Californian-based label Unique Leader Records to release their debut album. Years later, FIRST FRAGMENT remains as strong as ever and unchanged to their core, and in their common obsessioné

FIRST FRAGMENT Lineup:

David AB – lead vocals

Phil Tougas – lead guitar, vocals

Dominic “Forest” Lapointe – bass

Nick Miller – guitar

Dasein Lineup:

David AB – lead vocals

Phil Tougas – lead guitar, vocals

Gabriel Brault-Pilon – guitar

Vincent Savary – bass

Troy Fullerton - Drums

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Review : Zealotry - The Last Witness by Aristocrazia Webzine

Via Aristocrazia Webzine : "The Last Witness" creeps me out. It's clear Zealotry's second work from last year isn't meant for the ears of this world. Roman Termin's creature charms the listener with a weird kind of death metal, exotic to the point of feeling alien: it brings up names like Demilich and Timeghoul, but still sounds characteristic. This thanks to the noticeable touch in the writing process by the guitarist Pat Tougas, who in 2016 managed to play on three albums in three different bands, even if none of his other works came close to what he did here.

Zealotry put us in front of the unknown, through weird dimensions where our minds would be broken by the number of items our mental faculties can register but can't understand. The pace is unpredictable: even if the band prefers mid tempos, you can't imagine when the next outburst of fury will be. Guitars create a twisted score, made of chromatic scales that make sense only for the R'lyeh inhabitants; they also leave in several occasions space for the bass to shine, even doing solos (as in the titletrack). Finally, the growl is so deep and dark that it seems to come from astronomical distances.

Maybe you got the idea that "The Last Witness" is a messy album. In this case you'd be wrong and by far: there aren't the easy dissonances that are catching on in some areas of extreme metal. Here it's clear that every arrangement has been designed with meticulous care and it feels like the result of many influences assimilated over the years. Add then some musicality that makes the sound more various and complex, still remaining far from inconclusive chaos, and in this way you now have a clearer idea of how this work kissed by cosmic rays sounds.

There's no shortage of elements that make the difference and enrich the compositive value of the release: in my opinion, the longest tracks, "Progeny Omega" and the last one "Silence" are the best ones. Both of them open with a brief acoustic guitar intro, showing then different developements thanks to fresh elements. The former has some great melodic solos echoing traditional heavy metal in the central section, while in the latter we can hear a cello for a short time!

I want to close this review with a mea culpa: I did already hear this album in 2016, and was inclined to put it in my Top 5 of the year. This didn't happen because I couldn't commit to "The Last Witness" the necessary number of listening sessions I need to understand an album, so I preferred other releases I knew better, thanks to 2016 being a busy year for great albums. Today I feel Zealotry deserved that entry. I hope to redeem myself, recommending to buy this album to whoever likes death metal and wants something surprising."

Originally written by Crypt of Fear for https://www.aristocraziawebzine.com/

Review : Chthe'ilist - Le Dernier Crépuscule by Cvltnation

Via Cvltnation : "Oh, how I’ve waited for this. I’ll never forget how blown away I was a few years ago when I was fortunate enough to come across Chthe’ilist and their mind blowing debut demo Amechth’ntaas’m’rriachth. Chthe’ilist have finally unleashed their debut album, and what can I say, it’s every bit as insane and off the wall as one could possibly expect – and then some. It felt like forever waiting for Le Dernier Crépuscule to drop, but now that it has, all other releases have taken something of a back seat, for it is extremely rare that an album like this comes creeping in.

After the eerie, key-laden introduction, “Into the Vaults of Ingurgitating Oblivion” kicks things off as catchy chords hang suspended amidst strange, gurgled vocals that are all too alien in nature, and brought together in best fashion possible with a climax of catacomb-inducing synth midway through the song that catapults this Lovecraftian juggernaut into the horrifying, all-too-subterranean netherworld of nightmares that a sane individual would ever dream of.

Indeed, right out of the gate, Chthe’ilist did not come to disappoint you, and they did not come to be merely a Finnish homage band either, as although the similarities to Demilich are clear, there are a lot of other influences brought to the table, and the end result is nothing short of grotesque, putrid and perfect. “Voidspawn,” for instance, comes at you with full on Death Metal might. Chthe’ilist take things up a dozen notches or so with a towering production that brings forth ruin in the most terrifying of ways, and grandiose lead guitar closes the song out in an awe inspiring sort of way as it fades out and leaves the breathing room necessary for “Scriptures of the Typhlodians” to pick things up.

Label: Profound Lore

Slithering its way into your psyche, “Scriptures…” fades in from another dimension, with haunting synth and rising, rasping vocals before you’re slaughtered with an onslaught of explosive riffs and unpredictable variations in song structure that will leave your mind scrambled, yet utterly captivated by the intricate craft playing out before you. This song truly has everything you could possibly want from this band packed into a mere 6 and a half minutes: boundless, off the wall riffs, synth that lurches and enchants, vocals that make you tremble, and a solo that brings “Scriptures…” to its height before you’re bludgeoned one last time by nameless beings to completion.

It’s no surprise that the following track, “The Voices From Beneath The Well,” begins in complete darkness. With a title like that, you know going in that this song is going to be something else. After its introductory sounds evoke a watery tomb in the mind’s eye, Chthe’ilist begins their full scale riff assault with no nonsense. Flowing all too smoothly, “The Voices…” features some of the most straightforward material on the album, as you will have no problem banging your head to Chthe’ilist’s unique kaleidoscope of unimaginable atrocities. Also, I’ll just say that the bass on this song is particularly prominent and fucking awesome, as it really stands out and shines in the mix, giving “The Voices…” a kind of extra “umph” that I imagine will make this a favorite among many in the underground.

And once again, the transition to the next song is extremely fitting, as “Vecoiitn’aphnaat’smaala” kicks off with a bass-driven bang that introduces you to yet another glorious buffet of subtly shifting riffs that lead you headlong into the incomprehensible abyss as things come to a standstill two and a half minutes in, and you’re taken through a clean vocal passage that borders on spoken word alongside a creepy riff that takes you on a menacing journey, with twists and turns that, quite frankly, blew me the fuck away for the next minute and a half. There’s so much atmosphere and riff wizardry in this short burst alone you won’t know what to think, but this I can promise: you haven’t heard anything quite like it before.

It becomes almost hard to believe when “Tales of the Majora Mythos Part 1” begins that this beast of a record is almost over – but fear not, this closing track comes in at 13 minutes and is the kind of massive sendoff that befits Le Dernier Crépuscule. The first few minutes excel in building tension, with an array of sepulchral keys that loom and forebode and riffing mixed in before the keys come back, only to abruptly end with a corkscrew of riffing that launches “Tales…” into its most driven, fast section of the entire album around the 3:45-4 minute mark – it’s incredibly tough sounding and really just flat out rules.

But as one would expect, this is in itself a buildup of sorts for a song of this length, as Chthe’ilist slow things down and introduce more of that strange, clean vocal gospel into the mix that comes across like the ghost of H.P. Lovecraft returning one last time to narrate what might be the best nameless horror-inspired album to ever be released. What follows forth is a descent into madness. As the blasts come back into play and the riffs spiral out of control once more, Chthe’ilist end their megalithic affair with a punishing, hair-raising cacophony of extremity, each member going full throttle, reaching a kind of apex that ends things appropriately in its utter incomprehensibility. The brilliance of this record cannot be understated. Even fans that aren’t keen on other “weird” Death Metal will enjoy this album, for it is a mash up of finely tuned elements that each have their place and always come into play at exactly the right time with maximal impact. This isn’t an album you wrap your mind around; it’s an album that wraps around you, and takes your cognizance far off course – beyond all that is tangible."

Originally written by Mitchell for Cvltnation