Review by Rexorcist for Control Denied - The Fragile Art of Existence (1999)

Chuck wanted to express new musical ideas through a band that wasn't associated with death metal.  But considering that this album has the EXACT SAME LINEUP AS DEATH DID IN THEIR LAST ALBUM save the singer, can we really just call this a Death album?  All he did was change the band name like New Order did, and The Sound of Perseverance isn't even that much of a death metal album.  I remember a time on RYM where I was group-scolded for a decision to include Funkadelic and Parliament as two separate bands in a funk bands vote.  Since then I try to be more serious about these kinds of things.  On top of this, Control Denied's album has the same kind of prog and thrash influences on that album.  So I'm gonna list this as a Death album with a guest vocalist (who unfortunately died last year).  Hey, Dave Grohl isn't a member of Killing Joke and he performed percussions for their self-titled 2003 album.

Now that I'm done complaining, lemme talk about the album.  First of all, if you have any love for Death's album The Sound of Perseverance, then you're going to love the guitar work on this album.  Instead of being rooted in the death metal compositions of past works, it steers into other areas such as speed, thrash, power and US power.  Songs like Expect the Unexpected have a very similar drum pattern and rhythmic guitar sound.  There's some very definite death-thrash there.  There's a never-ending heaviness that amplifies the progressive power of the album, and thanks to a wider range of sounds the album is also less monotonous than TSoP, which would've been perfect if not for that.  Although, despite the wider range of sounds, I have to point out that many of the songs share all these elements, so the diversity factor caves in on itself much like the most recent Hoplites album, Paramainomeni.  This doesn't stop the songs from being serious headbangers, though.  Among the complexity is an extreme metal power that draws lovers of both heavy and death right in, combining the best of both worlds.  There are very few moments in the album that can really differentiate songs from each other, like the serene midtro of When the Link Becomes Missing turning into that speedy but melodic guitar solo.

There's a lot that this band did right with their first album under the new name, but despite the incredible levels of thrashing and complex compositions, they forgot to truly differentiate certain songs, so it may become a bit much at times.  In fact, the nine-minute outtro didn't even stand out very much because of that.  However, it's a fun album for thrashers with a lot of the band's best tricks at full display.  A worthy follow up to The Sound of Perseverance for the most part.