FRACTURED INSANITY is a death metal band from Belgium, who formed in 2004. Their latest release, “Age of Manipulation,” is their fifth full-length album; they have also released an EP. I’ve never heard of the band before I received this promo but to be honest, which I always strive to be in my reviews, I’m not feeling this album. The trouble of being a reviewer is that sometimes it can be hard to fully explain why an album is bad. Sometimes, on paper, the album shouldn’t be bad and there is no reason it shouldn’t work. “Age of Manipulation,” is such an album, unfortunately. On paper, it works. It’s brutal, fast paced, killer guitar tone, and checks off all the boxes that make up a death metal album.

But for whatever reasons, it just never grabbed me. The main problem is, and it isn’t really fair because there is nothing the band can do about this, that I have reviewed a metric ton of absolutely fantastic death metal albums in the past year. The genre is on an upswing and is full to bursting with quality releases. Because of that, a death metal album has to REALLY stand out to get my attention at this point. The competition is too steep in a flooded market and I have 40 death metal albums behind this one that are ready to be reviewed and 40 in front of it that I did review. This one doesn’t measure up to the previous 40 and I don’t feel like it will do well against the ones behind it. That isn’t to say this is a bad album. It’s not, at all. Your mileage will vary, especially if you don’t follow the scene as much as I do.

The opening song, “Exaltation of a Fallen Glory,” begins with the killer guitar tone I mentioned earlier. The song builds up with the drums helping to push the momentum before it suddenly explodes. It’s fast and mean, with its well balanced production making every instrument offer a beefy performance without any of it having to fight for space. It’s a solid opening song and if you like it, I would imagine the rest of the album will be serviceable. “The hangman’s Lair,” has a dismal atmosphere, the riffs sweltering in the beginning before the song goes into its standard death metal romp. It doesn’t sound bad but it doesn’t really sound too much different from the rest of them. I did like the guitar solo quite a bit and the high-pitched death screams that arrived afterwards.

“Slumber In The Deep,” is my favorite song on the album and the only one I really cared to come back to. The bass is MASSIVE–truly bone crushing. The tempo/riffs have a doom-ish feel to them. This lends the song a towering, monolithic feel that puts it above the rest of the songs. All in all, FRACTURED INSANITY’s “Age of Manipulation,” does its due diligence as far as death metal goes but it just didn’t excite me in any way or stand out to me.