Fractal Universe - The Great Filters (2025)

Masterfully crafting intoxicating Progressive/Technical Death Metal songs, today we have Fractal Universe and their excellent “The Great Filters”. As the band’s fourth full-length release, this album unleashes nine tracks and over 46 minutes of perfectly balanced musicianship with melody and a good dose of heaviness. For fans of bands like Leprous and Opeth, to heavier outfits like Obscura and Allegaeon, this release has a bit for everybody with refined taste.

Opening with the proggy goodness of “The Void Above”, we get masterfully layered guitars and crafty tempo changes alongside a hearty growl and a very clean and direct atmosphere. This track has some serious Leprous vibes that gently make their way into most of the release, as heard on tracks like “The Great Filter”, “Causality’s Grip”, and “The Seed of Singularity”, nicely enhancing the band’s range and keeping things very lively and engaging.

The Ihsahn-esque “Specific Obsolescence” and “Dissecting the Real” have to be our favorite track with excellent guitar work and playful vocal melodies. They also have a vicious edge that showcases the band is not slowing down when it comes to their core heavier influences. The other element that makes this release quite special is the intoxicating use of saxophone, spread out in masterful atmospheric passages. Almost entering into Djent territories, other proggy pieces like “Concealed” showcase the band’s range and wide variety of influences.

Overall, “The Great FilterS” is one hell of a release that will certainly capture a wider audience for Fractal Universe. The band is full of skilled musicians, and they also excel in creating engaging and crafty songs that are far from boring or technical exercises, but are quite cohesive and very naturally flowing. Any fan of the genre will certainly get a kick of this release and should not miss out on following this highly polished outfit.

Label: M-Theory Audio

Release: April 4th, 2025

Genre: Progressive/Technical Death Metal

Country: USA