After two releases, Gruesome finds
themselves in a precarious position. With “Savage Land”, they created the most
authentic Death worship to ever exist, but on “Dimensions of Horror”, they took
it too far. The songs went from paying tribute to Death to straight-up ripping
them off. “Fragments of Psyche”, their next EP presents an opportunity to
reinvent themselves by moving deeper into Death’s career. The target this time
around is “Human”, and much to Gruesome’s credit, they’ve rediscovered how to
be inspired by Death without stealing their riffs this time. The title track on
this album could be an unearthed gem from the “Human” sessions and no one would
ever know (aside from some slight production differences). The unique intervals
and riffing style that characterized this period are in full form on “Fragments
of Psyche”, and one can’t help but be impressed by Gruesome’s commitment to
perfecting this sound.
And then there’s the rest of the EP. The
remaining 6 tracks consist of a cover of “Choke On It” (one of Death’s most
underrated songs, as it has insane harmonies and bouncy riffing), and 5 demo
tracks of songs that appeared on the band’s debut. Unfortunately, as a
purchase, this is all somewhat worthless. “Savage Land” practically is “Leprosy”,
so there’s no real value in covering a song from that album. There are some slight differentiating elements to make it sound as though it was written in the "Human" era, but nothing all that major. Additionally, the demos
don’t sound all that different from the final product. Ultimately, it makes “Fragments
of Psyche” appear to be a very padded release. There’s only 4 minutes of real
substance on this 31-minute EP. That doesn’t mean you should avoid it, but
rather just pickup the one new track on iTunes and move on (or get the 7-inch, which has only the original song and the cover). Gruesome once
looked like a promising project, and the potential is certainly still there,
but the band should work on making another full-length record of songs that use
Death’s tropes, and not their riffs. It likely doesn’t even matter which era
they pay homage to, as Gruesome has the talent to pull all of them off; they
just need to be more focused, and stop releasing things for the sake of
releasing something.
Highlight
"Fragments of Psyche"
Final Rating
3.5/5 or 70%.
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