FIRST FRAGMENT — Gloire éternelle (review)

FIRST FRAGMENT — Gloire éternelle album cover

Album · 2021 · Technical Death Metal

4.5/5 · 2023-05-19
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Gloire Éternelle (2021) is the second full-length studio album by Canadian technical death metal act First Fragment. The band's debut album Dasein was released in 2016 and in the interim there have been some changes. Co-founding guitarist Gabriel Brault-Pilon has left the band to pursue a career in law enforcement while bassist Vincent Savary has also moved on, though has a cameo as a guest musician. Drums on the debut were recorded by a session member, with the permanent role now filled by Nicholas "Le Fou" Wells. Replacing the departed band members are guitarist Nick "Thriller" Miller and in what may just be the band's biggest coup, bassist Dominic "Forest" Lapointe (Augury, ex-Beyond Creation). Only vocalist David AB and guitarist Phil Tougas remain from the debut's line-up.

The music on Gloire Éternelle is, at its core, technical death metal of more the progressive flair, but the edge on the music is much more orientated in a neoclassical approach. The musicianship of First Fragment is of an impeccable level and the band really go full tilt with their soloing, including bass soloing. The highest about of solos in a single track on the album is nineteen, jointly held by Pantheum and the epic suite In'el, a nearly nineteen minute long track. Conversely Pantheum is among the album's shortest tracks.

The overall sound is highly melodic without ever really being melodeath, but it would not be wrong I think to make a connection to power metal in the First Fragment's sound. They also add some acoustics which have a decidedly flamenco touch to them, which isn't something you hear everyday in death metal! The production values may be too pretty and polished for old school death metal fans to get behind, but for those who love insane musicianship Gloire Éternelle is an easy album to become captivated by and is perfect for the neoclassical leads to shine.

All bass on the album is fretless, which always adds a rather unique edge to a technical death metal act, as already displayed by Lapointe in Beyond Creation and other fretless favouring players like Obscura's Jeroen Paul Thesseling. Man, I really love this sound actually. With a lot of metal bass I often find it getting a bit lost amongst everything else going on and as such there's only really a handful of bass players I really consider essential to their band (like Steve Harris in Iron Maiden), but here Lapointe has a lead role in things and it sounds glorious. I would love to hear more bands doing this, not just in tech death.

Clocking in with a big run time of 71:28 it is perhaps a fair criticism to say they do let things meander a bit, although the epic piece, In'el, stands for me as a true crowning achievement of what makes Gloire Éternelle such a great release. It's not an album that I think will please every death metal fan, it seems clear that this one was meant more for the progsters. For this death metal fan it hits the spot absolutely deliciously.