Reality Only Fantasized

I would never even expect such a brutal and technical album by a small band such as Capharnaum. The debut album is a perfect example of brevity with brutality. Reality Only Fantasized features 25 minutes of technical brutality and that’s perfect like this in order to avoid the listener’s boredom. “Eternal Descent” features an intro by gloomy vocals and when the instruments enter we can immediately notice the powerful production and the incredibly massive guitars. The tempo is not excessively fast at the beginning and they point more on the guitars duets. The few up tempo parts are always very catchy and in the background the guitars don’t stop in putting out riffs with a solid jazz/progressive background with the distortion of a death metal band.

The vocals are growlish but always human and never excessively screamed. The atmosphere often is given by some keyboards inserts among the heavier structures. We go on with “Night Terror” and once again the guitars are the most astonishing point here. Their style is impressive in fluidity and technical level. However, the riffs are also extremely catchy and with a sort of groove that adds goodness in this case. The bass is always pulsing behind the other instruments and we can find even good lead/solo sections by the six strings to add a sense of simplicity and harmony in a bunch of intricate parts. “Sinister Perceptions” has a drums intro and the following riffs that take everything from 1991 Death style (Human album). The influences from that band are huge and undeniable. As always the songs settle on a sort of mid-paced progression with lots of tempo changes and various switching of riffs.

“Sightless” features an atmospheric beginning to soon turn into a violent assault with few blast beats and an incredibly obscure atmosphere. Some Nocturnus influences can be found especially during the atmospheric intermezzos between the most violent sections. There are clean guitars parts too and they announce a more melodic and always progressive-based solo. “Drawn In Misery” is more vicious once more and the riffs are far more death metal inspired. The tempo is not excessively fast and sometimes we can find even some Morbid Angel dissonant riffs. The main purpose is to create a gloomy atmosphere and the guitars help a lot but we can find also some up tempo sections. Once more the solo part is the one that stands out for being more melodic and it’s really impressive in style.

“Journey beyond” is more canonical death metal with a great drumming and some more melodic lead lines by the guitars. The violent restarts are far heavier and they point on the pure brutality of the rhythmic session and the bass drums beats. “Delusional Imprisonment” has more galloping riffs and the tempo is faster. Once again some parts are heavily inspired to mid-era Death and that’s normal, considering the importance of that band for this style. We continue with darker passages and the different riffs by the guitars. Each song, in its complexity, is always distinguishable and personal. “Soul Dissolved” is the exclamation point to this already great album. The bass drums beats accompany the notes of the bass guitar and the stop and go riffs. Then, more progressive parts come and we can always find the same astonishing mix of brutality to technique.

All in all, this is a great album. The songs are already mature, competitive and astonishing in style. The technical level by the members is surprising and the compositions stand out in brutality and melody. The climax in my opinion is for the solos on this album but all the structures are massive and pummelling. This is an obligatory stopover for those who love the true technical death metal.