Have you ever wondered what Circle of Dead Children would sound like if they played blackened experimental death grind? Me neither, but after hearing Sudbury, Ontario, Canada’s Fractal Generator that unasked question has been answered with an emphatic: FUCKING AWESOME!

The similarities between the two bands is uncanny. If you listened to the band’s debut EP, The Cannibalism of Objects, you’d swear Circle of Dead Children had recorded a new CD and decided to take their sound in a new, even more chaotic direction, after the departure of Jason Andrews. Everything from the guitar tone and riffing style, to the drum patterns, and especially the vocals, sound like Pennsylvania’s finest death grinders. Fractal Generator‘s Mark Howitt has such a large range of grunts, gurgles, shrieks and howls, you’d swear you were listening to Joe Horvath regurgitating into the microphone.

Musically, there’s a fair amount of difference between the two bands, that allow Fractal Generator to stand out. Rather than focusing on short, fast songs like their American counterparts, Fractal Generator stick to songs with longer running times, with the shortest being 3 minutes and the longest clocking in at 7. While Circle of Dead Children have added many outside elements to their grinding style, Fractal Generator takes it several steps further, bringing in noise, black metal (not surprising, since the band features at least one member of the black metal group Wolven Ancestry), drone, doom and sludge elements, to their already frenzied chaotic death grind sound.

The tracks contain frequent tempo changes, one second the band will be grinding their way at a frenzied pace, and the next they’re plodding their way through a sludgy doom segment, before ramping things up with raw buzzing black metal riffs and blasts, with occasional noises blaring in the background or foreground. The songwriting itself is awesome, and things never become dull at any point during the EP’s 24 minute running time.

If The Cannibalism of Objects was a Circle of Dead Children album, it would undoubtedly be their finest release to date. The fact that it’s not and that someone else took their sound to an even higher level than 1999′s Exotic Sense Decay is both shocking and exciting. Joe Horvath and friends have their work cut out for them, because these small town (well, if 160,000 people is “small town”) Canadian grinders have just raised the bar. The most surprising thing is that this album was originally released as a demo in 2008 and has generated absolutely zero buzz to date. How the fuck is that possible? How have I not been thrashing my sack off to this for the past three years? If anyone from Willowtip or Relapse is paying attention, you need to track these guys down and sign them immediately. They are to death/grind what Ulcerate is to death metal. They are that fucking good. You also have no excuse not to get it, because Archaic North have made the demo available for free download from their website. Fuck!

Review byTeufel