I am incredibly stoked for this, I am a big fan of Philippe "Phil" Allaire-Tougas

Welp the new song "pantheum" they recently brought out absolutely blew my brains out. one of the best songs I have ever heard in over 15 years of listening to metal. if this album is even 10% as good as that song it will be for sure my album of the year.

If the rest of the album holds up to these first three singles this is shaping up to be one of the greatest tech albums of all time

God bless these guys for rediscovering that you don't need to overproduce technical metal for it to sound good. My ears are very pleased already.

Between bass and guitars in the song "Pantheum" there are 19 solos or maybe more? 2 before it starts singing, 16 in the middle and one at the end! Fantastic!

Phil Tougas (Guitar)
Nick Miller (Guitar)
Dominic "Forest" Lapointe (Bass)

Solo 1 : Tougas
Solo 2 : Tougas
Lyrics
Solo 3 : Tougas
Solo 4 : Miller
Solo 5 : Tougas
Solo 6 : Miller/Tougas - Harmonie
Solo 7 : Tougas
Solo 8 : Forest
Solo 9 : Miller
Solo 10 : Forest
Solo 11 : Miller
Solo 12 : Forest
Solo 13 : Tougas
Solo 14 : Forest
Solo 15 : Miller
Solo 16 : Forest
Solo 17 : Tougas
Solo 18 : Forest
Lyrics
Solo 19 : Tougas

First Fragment might be the first tech death group I really enjoy. What it lacks in the songwriting it more than makes up for in the balance of technical capability without sounding overbearing or unfocused. There's no reliance on one member to solo the whole thing; everyone gets their share and more. This wouldn't be nearly as interesting to me without the bass being so prominent in the sound. Never heard of Forest before but I'll have to check out his other bands.

Written by LifelikeAdvisor on 29.10.2021 at 21:54

First Fragment might be the first tech death group I really enjoy. What it lacks in the songwriting it more than makes up for in the balance of technical capability without sounding overbearing or unfocused. There's no reliance on one member to solo the whole thing; everyone gets their share and more. This wouldn't be nearly as interesting to me without the bass being so prominent in the sound. Never heard of Forest before but I'll have to check out his other bands.

Forest was in Quo Vadis and Beyond Creation essentially rendering him Techdeath royalty. This is the best tech album I've heard since the last Archspire album. I still need to listen to their new one that came out today. It's basically Metal Christmas today, new First Fragment, new Archspire, and new Be'lakor

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Forest was in Quo Vadis and Beyond Creation essentially rendering him Techdeath royalty. This is the best tech album I've heard since the last Archspire album. I still need to listen to their new one that came out today. It's basically Metal Christmas today, new First Fragment, new Archspire, and new Be'lakor

I can see what you mean. A quick check into the albums he did with Quo Vadis and Beyond Creation shows three of the four are in the top 20 albums of their respective release years. Not saying he specifically weighed the scales but it's impressive nonetheless. Definitely convinced me to check out more. I had Stortregn's Impermanence tagged as my favorite tech death from this year but Gloire Éternelle won me over.

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Written by LifelikeAdvisor on 29.10.2021 at 23:16

Forest was in Quo Vadis and Beyond Creation essentially rendering him Techdeath royalty. This is the best tech album I've heard since the last Archspire album. I still need to listen to their new one that came out today. It's basically Metal Christmas today, new First Fragment, new Archspire, and new Be'lakor

I can see what you mean. A quick check into the albums he did with Quo Vadis and Beyond Creation shows three of the four are in the top 20 albums of their respective release years. Not saying he specifically weighed the scales but it's impressive nonetheless. Definitely convinced me to check out more. I had Stortregn's Impermanence tagged as my favorite tech death from this year but Gloire Éternelle won me over.

Stortregn was also an impressive album, I like black metal so I dig their whole blackened melodic techdeath thing they have going. I think that the two Beyond Creation albums with Forest were their best two (especially their first album), the opening track of the Quo Vadis album Defiant Imagination is incredible (Silence Calls the Storm). Tougas/guitarist is also a big part of the First Fragment formula, I have listened to every album of his and his best work imo is with Equipoise and of course FF. I've also listened to everything Forest has been associated with, the best have been noted already but Augury should be an honorable mention. An unrelated but incredible tech album would be Gorod's Process of a New Decline (kind of like groove techdeath) and Ouroboros Glorification of a Myth (thrash techdeath)

Written by chomskeet on 29.10.2021 at 23:43

Stortregn was also an impressive album, I like black metal so I dig their whole blackened melodic techdeath thing they have going. I think that the two Beyond Creation albums with Forest were their best two (especially their first album), the opening track of the Quo Vadis album Defiant Imagination is incredible (Silence Calls the Storm). Tougas/guitarist is also a big part of the First Fragment formula, I have listened to every album of his and his best work imo is with Equipoise and of course FF. I've also listened to everything Forest has been associated with, the best have been noted already but Augury should be an honorable mention. An unrelated but incredible tech album would be Gorod's Process of a New Decline (kind of like groove techdeath) and Ouroboros Glorification of a Myth (thrash techdeath)

I was out for a minute so wasn't here to respond at the time but thank you for being here to champion Forest's technical prowess and general prominence as a seemingly unheralded genius-level bassist. While I appreciate the overall compatibility and balance on display in this project, I can't help but regard him as a standout (likely due to personal bias). For me, he has the Midas touch, and simultaneously offers a unique personality a la Claypool. You just know it's him when you hear him play without needing to read the liner notes -- the kind of musician future generations cite as one of their primary influences.

Incredible release, what a great year for tech-death.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 30.10.2021 at 09:08

Written by chomskeet on 29.10.2021 at 23:43

Stortregn was also an impressive album, I like black metal so I dig their whole blackened melodic techdeath thing they have going. I think that the two Beyond Creation albums with Forest were their best two (especially their first album), the opening track of the Quo Vadis album Defiant Imagination is incredible (Silence Calls the Storm). Tougas/guitarist is also a big part of the First Fragment formula, I have listened to every album of his and his best work imo is with Equipoise and of course FF. I've also listened to everything Forest has been associated with, the best have been noted already but Augury should be an honorable mention. An unrelated but incredible tech album would be Gorod's Process of a New Decline (kind of like groove techdeath) and Ouroboros Glorification of a Myth (thrash techdeath)

I was out for a minute so wasn't here to respond at the time but thank you for being here to champion Forest's technical prowess and general prominence as a seemingly unheralded genius-level bassist. While I appreciate the overall compatibility and balance on display in this project, I can't help but regard him as a standout (likely due to personal bias). For me, he has the Midas touch, and simultaneously offers a unique personality a la Claypool. You just know it's him when you hear him play without needing to read the liner notes -- the kind of musician future generations cite as one of their primary influences.

Not sure if most metalstormers realize this but it takes a lot to get a nine out of Troy! I obviously agree with your sentiments on Forest/bass, I really love how high they put it in the mix!

That.fucking.bass

Best tech death album in a long while.

I really didn't think I'd say this but this is even better than the Archspire album that came out on the same day. Just an absolute masterpiece. Pantheum and In'el are honestly one of the best songs ever written. That's all I have to say because honestly words don't make this album justice. Just go listen to it if you haven't yet.

It's not every day that I listen to an album and the bassist is the highlight of the entire album. This is probably some of the best bass work I've heard. Absolutely mind blowing!

This is certainly better than Archspire.

Written by chomskeet on 01.11.2021 at 21:31

Not sure if most metalstormers realize this but it takes a lot to get a nine out of Troy!

I was going to refute this claim but checked my vote history out of curiosity and realized that, of my 1300+ votes (at the time of commenting), only 78 are 9s, for a grand total of ~6%.

Do I even like metal?

I mean I like this album obviously... but wow.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 05.11.2021 at 03:36

Written by chomskeet on 01.11.2021 at 21:31

Not sure if most metalstormers realize this but it takes a lot to get a nine out of Troy!

I was going to refute this claim but checked my vote history out of curiosity and realized that, of my 1300+ votes (at the time of commenting), only 78 are 9s, for a grand total of ~6%.

Do I even like metal?

I mean I like this album obviously... but wow.

Haha, I knew this because I have already "harvested" your nines and tens, there are not many. Some previously unknown to me great finds include; Gris, Woods Of Desolation, Officium Triste, Vredehammer, and Netherbird.

Written by Aries Rising on 03.11.2021 at 14:22

Best tech death album in a long while.

A ton of spins later and I'm starting to think this might be the greatest tech death album ever (and I listen to quite a lot of tech death). From a historical perspective I'd say that Quo Vadis is the best, but I think it's safe to say imo this is probably is the greatest modern tech death album

Wow, just wow! The bass guitar... WOW!!!

Technical death metal for power metal lovers. It's nice but too long.

If Yngwie Malmsteen plays technical death metal, would sound like this. Still diggin this.

The bassist of Beyond Creation is now here, nice! This album is masterpiece, so enjoyable, loved it!

A lot of high-praise comments on this album. Time to check it out.

Best tech death album in years...:banger:

Vocals are really annoying for me, they totally ruined the epic "In'El". Just imagine this technical happy metal album with clean vocals. Could be an easy 9/10.

Really Great Tech album love it ....... But the "De Chair Et De Haine" is "Smoke and Mirrors" from "Symphony X" ..... in fact they are both the devil's violinist - Niccolò Paganini - Caprice for Solo Violin, Op. 1 No. 24

This is a power metal album with more distortion and harsh vocals. I’d honestly prefer clean vocals on this, but overall the musicianship is incredible. Forest is mad man bassist. A fun listen for sure.

Some of the greatest bass works I have heard in an album.