Fragments of Unbecoming – Skywards – A Sylphe’s Ascension

[Russell]

Fragments of Unbecoming – Skywards – A Sylphe’s Ascension
Metalblade – 3984-14467-2 – 27.01.04
By Anna Novitzky

First impressions are a bastard – they’re so hard to shake, and they’re very often wrong. A good one, though, can make up for all manner of ills. Fragments of Unbecoming seem to know this.

Skywards – A Sylphe’s Ascension begins with a clean, elegant and beautiful melody picked out on guitars and raindrops, which then turns into a crashing, powerful metal line. This turns out to be the high point of the album, but it's easy to forgive them for the anticlimax of what follows. After the surprise of the almost baroque opening – reprised in the final track and occasionally in-between – the music returns to more conventional fare. It’s repetitive to the point of boredom, but finely crafted all the same. Something in the epic construction of the melodies which underpin raw, brutal vocals brings Satyricon to mind, although this displays little of their majesty. The song titles – ‘Up From the Blackest of Soil’, ‘Entangled Whispers in the Depths’, ‘On a Scar’s Edge to Infinity’ – betray a traditional death/black metal outlook which underlies their standard-issue output but doesn’t permeate it. It’s unlikely that we’ll see Fragments of Unbecoming breaking any startling new ground, but they’ll certainly keep us entertained.

Official Fragments Of Unbecoming Website
Official Metalblade Website

 

[Oceanic Motion]

I thought it was a pretty strong release.