The Fragile Art of Existence

I'll be honest, I would perceive "The Fragile Art Of Existence" much better if it came out under the name Death and if the vocals were like "The Sound Of Perseverance" on it. It does not automatically mean that I do not like the only Control Denied album, on the contrary! It's excellent and well composed, but...it aims at a style that I do not like on a daily basis. To be clear, Chuck Schuldiner, establishing his second (and including Mantas, third) band, decided to abandon his most of death metal patents and direct his music to power metal regions. It turned out surprisingly better than those who also tried to soften the sound quite clearly, although I think that in the "old" style, this material could make an even greater impression. So it could have been great, but this is "only" very good.

I will not anticipate the facts. Control Denied is a band formed already at the time of "Symbolic" and which "surfaced" more widely only in 1999 with the release of their debut and the formation of the final line-up. In addition to the leader of the group, Schuldiner, there were guitarist Shannon Hamm and drummer Richard Christy previously known from "The Sound...", bass master from albums "Human" and "Individual...", i.e. Steve DiGiorgio and much less associated than the rest, singer Tim Aymar. In this configuration, they were - to put it simply - a continuation of the last Death album, but this one is clearly lighter, less aggressive and dominated by clean, high vocals.

From the instrumental (but also production) side, there is no need to write more, it's almost the same history as "The Sound Of Perseverance". So the riffs sweep one by one, the solos strike with amazing expression, the drums give the whole a certain madness, the bass work is even bolder than on the last Death album and the sound is clear and very professional! The vocals are different. Yes, these are also nice, interestingly diverse and - surprisingly - far from kitsch, but in my humble opinion, they do not always fit into the generally unhappy atmosphere of music, the best examples of which are "When The Link Becomes Missing" and "Believe" - ​​a bit too "pretty" when Aymar's vocals appear. Fortunately, these are just small incidents that do not blur the very good impression on this album. Songs like "Breaking The Broken", "Cut Down", "What If...?" or "Consumed" is a real top of this album, especially when you like perfectly balanced progressive sounds. There is no aggression known from Death in them, although the group makes up for it with other advantages that I mentioned above.

Currently, the only album of Control Denied is a bit forgotten, and wrong!, because as you can see from me, a person who does not like power metal, this has something to attract. I suspect the "popularity" situation of "The Fragile Art Of Existence" would be even better if Chuck Schuldiner was still alive. Unfortunately, as everyone knows, it turned out differently...

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2021/02/control-denied-fragile-art-of-existence.html