First Fragment - Gloire Eternelle

[works0fheart]

Surprised I haven't seen any mention of this album lately. It's easily one of the coolest albums I've heard in a while. If you call yourself a guitar nerd and haven't gave this a spin yet you're missing out.

That said, I feel obligated to say that Phil Tougas is the man and his playing on nearly everything he's recorded has been stellar. Man has so much material he's like the death metal Buckethead, only he doesn't have filler imo.

Anyways, give it a listen. Really good. In'El is a stand out track to me (it's also 19 minutes long so brace yourself).

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMJGV7p_FGBV7rP1vYM3rzbEbcdvkcjMk

 

[Dumple Stilzkin]

Excellent group.

 

[Tree]

Absolute AOTY for me. I've been obsessed with these dudes since '09.

I considered making a thread for the album myself, but posts about them never seem to garner much attention here for one reason or another.

 

[CTID]

came out around (or on?) the same day as archspire's new album and tons of people were trying to compare them? i don't really see many similarities other than them being techdeath, but stylistically very different approaches imo

wasn't a fan of first fragment's vocals so i ducked out pretty quick on this album, but i'll eventually need to give it a spin i guess. over an hour of techdeath sounds fucking exhausting though

 

[works0fheart]

over an hour of techdeath sounds fucking exhausting though

This is a very fair take and I completely get that. I'm pretty glad the Archspire album is relatively short because if it were any longer it would be hard to keep my attention, and I'm a huge fan of these types of albums. At least with it being short it leaves the listener wanting more rather than exhausted or bored. What I will say though is that this First Fragment one manages to keep my interest through most of it, but it's not completely perfect.

I won't lie, the vocals aren't interesting to me at all, but I don't think many people really pay attention to them anyways when it comes to this band. In all honesty this band is very much the Phil & Forest show so to speak, but for me that's not a bad thing.

 

[GunpointMetal]

I've listened to it 7-8 times now and on paper I should love it, but I just can't get into it. I think the run time is part of it, and the other part is that I'm not hearing anything that really grabs me. Everything is excellently-played and composed, but it feels to me like a really polished map of territory I've already seen a hundred times, if that makes sense. Definitely a solid album and I have no trouble grasping why a lot of my friends are super gung ho about it.

 

[gunch]

Am I stupid or were they with Artisan Era before? Or is there a band that's 100% like them on AE

And yeah, its cool, neoclassical shreddy tech death and all but my soul is aching for some just furious cave man brontosaurus femur shattering death that isn't slam or brutal dm

 

[Tree]

Am I stupid or were they with Artisan Era before? Or is there a band that's 100% like them on AE

And yeah, its cool, neoclassical shreddy tech death and all but my soul is aching for some just furious cave man brontosaurus femur shattering death that isn't slam or brutal dm

Phil was in Equipoise, who is on TAE, for a short time. And Nick's inspiration from First Fragment was very much apparent when writing that record IMO even before Phil was involved. I'm pretty sure he mostly took a backseat aside from writing his leads.

 

[Tree]

And yeah, its cool, neoclassical shreddy tech death and all but my soul is aching for some just furious cave man brontosaurus femur shattering death that isn't slam or brutal dm

Have you listened to Atrae Bilis? That may be up your alley if you're craving some straight forward heaviness.

 

[Necris]

Every riff is basically a mini solo, and those mini solos are are ornamented frequently by other mini solos and occasional extended solos and eventually it all congeals into busy background noise that occasionally comes back into focus for a few seconds now and then.
It's like there's almost no dynamics in the compositions or the arrangements for the first 5 songs and the occasional parts with swing rhythms and acoustic guitar sections were intended to stand in for them, but it doesn't work for long. Certainly not for nearly half the runtime. As a result this album feels really bloated, like a good 40 minute tech death album stretched to 70 minutes for no reason. If you gave me the last 5 tracks as a standalone album I'd probably say "that was a solid album". The instrumental parts are immaculately performed, the vocals get the job done, the production is great for this style, the artwork is pretty cool, harmonic minor is everywhere but more than anything, for most of the album, I'm bored.

In fairness to the band tech-death isn't really my thing in general (and I couldn't dream of playing any of this) but I remember genuinely enjoying some of the material on "Dasein" whereas this is largely a bland and occasionally disjointed feeling blur. "In'el" and "Sonata en mi mineur" are probably the standouts.

 

[Pietjepieter]

I think it is a sick album. Going trough a neo classical shred period this album perfectly fits my needs

It just makes me happy, all the unlimited shred!
However I think the album has also some issues, it is maybe a bit to long. Also I think the vocals do not fit everywhere that well.

But hey the shred is real on this one

 

[KnightBrolaire]

It's definitely in my top 5 albums of the year. the riffage is so fucking goooooooooood

nonstop riffage *check*
swing grooves and just groovy in general *check*
flamenco/latin vibes *check*

 

[gunshow86de]