FRAGILE ART

The reviewer tends to be maximally brief in two cases -- when an album is utterly boring and unoriginal, and when an album, on the contrary, merits a solid "good" rating but doesn't quite reach the highest mark. We're dealing with the second scenario. Listening to FRAGILE ART's "Axiom," first and foremost, one wants to extend a huge thank you to the entire team of musicians, because the more releases like this there are, the more the stereotype will die that if a band is from russia, their debut listen is best done on an empty stomach. From the very first seconds, the music draws you in. The album has the most important quality possible -- harmony, and it has truly been found. Aggressive yet very expressive and varied vocals, heavy but melodic guitar riffs, memorable solos, brilliant drum parts, and finally, electronic inserts that add a stunning flavor. The musical foundation is undoubtedly melodic death metal, and here lies the band's main achievement -- they truly managed to bring their own vision to the genre. The band themselves describe their style as modern death, though one should note that we're talking about a contemporary interpretation of specifically melodic death, and the band by no means copies the sound of modern IN FLAMES or SOILWORK. A huge number of bands insert one or two tracks with female (or less often male) clean vocals on an album; in most cases such songs clash with the overall sound and musical direction, serving no real purpose. FRAGILE ART, however, managed to handle this task superbly -- the song "Painfull" is one of the best on the album. The disc is remarkably easy to listen to and never gets tiresome. The recording quality is decent, though there is certainly room for improvement in that department. Overall, a worthy, solid effort -- not all is lost in this country...