Canada’s brutal blackened /grind space death metal band Fractal Generator is back with their third album Convergence.  I am a huge fan of their debut Apotheosynthesis and the follow-up  Macrocosmos.  This band is a very intriguing and original band in many ways.  I find them exciting.  All their albums boast awesome artwork too, as this new one heralds in some space-themed Lovecraftian monstrosity that nightmares are made of.

This three-piece, and a side of mashed potatoes, have been together through all their releases and each member goes by a long number.  Let’s get right into this 9-song 40-minute album with the opener “Cryogenian”, shall we?  After a brief little intro, the song blasts away in the band’s signature vortex-spinning, off-kilter approach.  Vocals are exceptional – quite guttural – and the beginning is relentless.  Whirlwind drum rolls may take your head clean off and play some hoops with it, if you’re not careful.  If you’re looking for similar bands to align Fractal Generator with, I would say Wormed, Gigan, Cryptopsy with maybe some Origin as well.  The band gets into some high-velocity blasting.

This opener is beyond brutal and no rest for the wicked with the title track up next.  Blasts right out of the starting gates equipped with some sounds  – sound effects/synths, whatever have you, very interesting.  Check out that blasting at 1.28 section – it is ferocious and most of all very heavy.  Some gravity like blasting comes our way, which as previous efforts have shown, pushes this into grind territory.  There are several tempo shifts on this track and the distorted guitars have a great and filthy swagger!

Another bonus on this album is that all the songs are in the four-minute territory, which is the perfect timeframe for this experimental type of death grind.   “Obelisk” has an atmospheric opening, which moves into a mid-paced grinding monolith of heaviness.  This is one of the very best songs the band has crafted.  Check out that guitar picking and riffage around the one-minute mark.  Memorable, crunchy, and truly heavy.  I mean-crappola, this is heavy.  Soon thereafter, around the two-minute mark, the high velocity rampage blasts dislodge your limbs from one another.  The double-pounding drums afterward are vicious and you really cannot catch your breath, until the 2.40 mid-paced crunch returns.  That friggin’ riffing-so awesome.  The song blasts away, reminding me of something Spain’s Wormed will do on a occasion.  I call it technical space ethereal blasting.  Dreamlike in some ways-hypnotic!!

“Encephalon” is the longest song at 4.51 and ends the album.  Starting slower, then mid-paced then blasts encompass this album closer. Midway in, hey what the hell – pianos??  Yes, some disjointed keys, and atmospherics all surround this heavy behemoth of a song.  Some of the chaos at the 3.30 mark, with the guitar soloing, will make you test your listening limits, and those pinch harmonics slice and dice across that pitiful face of yours.  No fancy atmospheric outro either, this song goes for the jugular all the way until the end.

Convergence is yet another fascinating and scorching album from Fractal Generator.  At times the cavernous sound gets a bit muddy in the production, however, for the most part, this is well-produced.  This is not an easy band to produce, I do not think.  Same with a band, such as Ulcerate, where there are swirling tempo and rhythm shifts in non-linear patterns.  This band continues to impress me  –  killer album!!

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