Fractalline is a Los Angeles metal band who is playing tonight with my friends in the band Madrost up at the World Class Doll Hut in Anaheim. Although I don't plan on going to the show, I thought I'd check out their stuff to familiarize myself with some new SoCal metalz.
I had expected some kind of lazy crossover thrash because that just seems to be the go-to approach for metal bands from this area lately, but Fractalline have a more modern sound, bridging thrash with death metal and lower-pitched djent/deathcore parts. The song "Digital Eden" in particular had an After The Burial-esque bouncy rhythm but at no point does it devolve into pointless chugadun breakdowns.
My main complaint would be that the drums, especially the cymbals, sounded like they were maybe digitized or programmed or otherwise played on an electronic set; it just didn't feel organic the way drums for any genre should sound. The artwork is a bit cheesy as well but this is an underground metal release after all. Those minor gripes aside, all the performances were proficient throughout the album and there were some really cool bass parts in songs like "Flawless Design" and the (ironically titled) "Singularity" suite. The vocals were adept, if nothing especially fresh, and overall it was a pretty tight album.
Recommended for fans of Fallujah, After The Burial, etc.
http://fractalline.bandcamp.com/album/polymath-theory
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