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7.5
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“Quality pissed us off” (cit.): evidently the French Fractal Gates think differently from Renè Ferretti, who despite not being endowed with who knows what inventiveness, always manage to churn out excellently crafted artefacts, also aided in this by the absence of record pressure (“One With Dawn” is the fourth album in a fifteen-year career, the first released by the band itself in the form of self-production) and therefore being able to dedicate themselves to finishing every detail with the air of a craftsman.
The result is a record that exudes passion from every note (and in a historical moment in which we are confronted with the sterility of artificial intelligences, this matters even more) and which will surely make many fans of melodic death metal raise their eyebrows. old school: if the opener “Shining Fall” immediately brings to mind the Insomnium formula (powerful rhythmic tapestry with abundant melodic nuances and Sebastian Pierre’s scream at the center of the room), the extensive tracklist shows that it has other references scattered here and there.
The presence of synths in the background, as well as the occasional use of clean vocals, are reminiscent of the best Stanne seen at work with Dark Tranquility (“Into The Uknown”, “Hyperstate”) or The Halo Effect (“Earthbound”), while somewhat surprisingly by the standards of the genre – but not for those already familiar with the proposal of the transalpine group – there are also gothic references to Paradise Lost and Sentenced in songs like “Half Alive” or “Serenity”.
The last piece, on a conceptual level, is related to the sci-fi approach of lyrics and artwork, an aspect that unites them with other historical groups such as Scar Symmetry, making their proposal even more recognisable; in closing, after the more cadenced “Echoing Motions” which perhaps exaggerates with the clean, there is also space for two old songs recovered from the debut album and re-recorded for the occasion (“The Eclipse”, “Skies Of Orion ”), also useful for ascertaining the growth path of the Parisian band.
Outside the usual Nordic borders, an excellent melodic-death album with a more rock-like feel.
