Fractal Gates – The Light That Shines

Label: Rain Without End Records  Playing Time: 45 Min  Release: 12.05.2018

Fractal Gates are a French band that has been active since 2007. Both band founders Stéphane Peudupin and Sébastien Pierre, who are also members of the Doom Metal band Inborn Suffering, wanted to live their lust for Melodic Death Metal. The result was the founding of Fractal Gates, who have released their third full-length album The Light That Shines right now.

Most interesting is the origin of the band. France is actually not a no 1 Metal country, especially not for this sort of Metal. So it is very surprising that Fractal Gates sound much like the no 1 Swedish band Dark Tranquility. And, to be quite honest, the sound on “The Light That Shines” can even match with the sound of Dark Tranquility’s latest albums. Great work! In terms of songwriting they can’t.

Although every single song works quite well, the overall result lacks catchiness and diversity. It is even impossible for me to identify the choruses. Maybe some effectual breaks, some gangshouts oder a variation of pace would improve the result. In addition, the omnipresent keys polish the result way too much. Sometimes less is more!

A pity, especially because the ingredients are good. But the overall result could be better!

https://fractalgates.bandcamp.com