(Full album stream courtesy Transcending Obscurity Distribution India)

Right away, Fractals of Derangement will hit listeners as a collection of familiar ideals. Take the technical brutality of bands like Suffocation or Cryptopsy, and lace it with indecipherable gutturals a la Mortician, and you have Biopsy. While this sound isn’t quite that original, it works out very well to weave some truly addicting performances, most notably the song “Genesis”. This one mixes together some complex guitar riffs with solid grooves backed by a steady, commanding drum presence. There’s also some melody at work that give the precise, Impaled medical-laced themed atmosphere in execution, a much more grand, even nightmarish backdrop that allows a sense of unease to immediately set in as your blood begins to boil.

“Hemolytic Crisis” keeps that foreboding operating room sensation alive a little differently. The bulky Death Metal assault isn’t the most impressive of songs presented at first, but the material only grows more intimidating as you progress. Around the half way point some melodic sections come into play, casting an ominous shadow over everything for a short time. Much of this can be said for “Surgical Symmetry” as well, with the exception of two small additions. This one includes toned down bridges and an additional timing change thrown in for good measure, both of which are nice for the sake of variety, but offer little to benefit or hinder the track in the long run.

Sadly, the aforementioned surgical feeling is dropped for “Anatomical Reconstruction”. Instead, we are given a cut that just charges forward right out the gate with a little more focus on the pig squeals. “Fractals of Derangement”, however, is a pretty groove-heavy performance all around. The only time it really lets up is during the slower slams, though they can come off more like a standard Deathcore breakdown, and the brief bout of additional technicality by the half way point.

The only downfall to this EP winds up being the lack of raspy vocals. It may seem like they would only cement Fractals of Derangement as Exhumed or Carcass worship, but there are times where that vile tone of voice would compliment the music perfectly. The best example would be the closing of “Anatomical Reconstruction” behind the gutturals. Even the pig squeals as support would have been a nice additional touch to wrap things up on a more powerful note, but, sadly, they were absent, leaving one to ponder what could have been, even belting out a substitute physically, or mentally at the very least.

For a nearly sixteen minute example of Death Metal technicality within the confines of a crisp audio quality, Fractals of Derangement is a release that shows the years leading up to it have in no way been wasted. Subtle hints of grandeur spliced into surgical atmospheres, unsettling environments, and general brutality with little remorse litter this release with the greatest of ease. If you’re in the market for a solid debut outing from an up-and-coming Death Metal powerhouse, Fractals of Derangement is something well worth checking out.