FIXATION: More Subtle Than Death (ALTERNATIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

"More Subtle Than Death" is the debut album from young Norwegian band Fixation, following on from their 2020 EP "Global Suicide". Spotted and signed by Indie Recordings, the band's modern metal is right up there with the times, and some would call it melodic post-metalcore, while others, less fussy about labels, would define it as nu metal or simply hard rock.

It's true that Fixation's music ticks a lot of different genres' boxes. These include the walls of guitar sound, the dynamic rhythmic changes in the middle of a song and the huge breaks that bring them closer to Pop Evil ('Ignore The Disarray', 'More Alive'), as well as the melodic vocals, devoid of screams, and the soaring passages that this time bring to mind 30 seconds to Mars in its early years('Flat Earth', 'Bleed').

The result is a powerful, easily assimilated whole, and it's hard to find fault with the compositions, so much they follow precise, structured specifications.. And that's the downside of Fixation's music. Taken one by one, the various tracks all have many qualities, whether melodic, technical or vocal, but when listened to in one go, the rules of writing jump out at you a little too much, like the break coming in the 3/4 of the song leading to the bridge, or the saturated guitars that fill almost all the space. The drums can also be criticized for being too generous at times, stringing together the fills ('More Alive', 'Violent Tendencies') and weighing down an already busy score.

For a debut album, "More Subtle Than Death" is undoubtedly a success and should enable Fixation to attract a certain fringe of the metal public, notably fans of the aforementioned bands and even Bring Me The Horizon, another reference point to which the Norwegian band is close, albeit less adventurous. Fixation's next objective is to offer less stereotyped and more airy music, and they'll be ready to take off. - Official website

FIXATION

MORE SUBTLE THAN DEATH

INDIE RECORDINGS

ALTERNATIVE ROCK