(Melodic Death Metal) Fragments Of Unbecoming - Sterling Black Icon — Chapter III — Black But Shining - 2006, APE (image+.cue), lossless

Although there is certainly a great deal more musical variation on Sterling Black Icon – Chapter III – Black But Shining than listeners experienced with the two previous “chapters” laid out by Germans Fragments Of Unbecoming, many will agree that the band is still a bit mired in the habit of worshipping the basic tenets of Swedish death metal, while not bringing very much to the table in the scope of innovation. That said, there are enough entertaining tracks on Sterling Black Icon – Chapter III – Black But Shining to raise the interest of fans, especially in light of the diminutive amount of quality death metal releases to be found in 2006.
Sine the band’s inception in the fall of 2000, Fragments Of Unbecoming has been intent on resurrecting a sound that was much more prevalent in the mid-1990s, these days you can count small numbers of acts that are actually dedicated to such a style and manage to pull it off in a competent fashion. Fortunately, Fragments Of Unbecoming has studied their influences quite well and quite frankly, upon repeated listening of Sterling Black Icon – Chapter III – Black But Shining, it does appear that this quartet of death-dealers is intent upon making music that is more dynamic than many critics might glean upon initial exposure.
Even though the Swedish style is still quite apparent in the band’s, a bit of German thrash also makes its way into the digits of Sterling Black Icon – Chapter III – Black But Shining, most notably the influences of Coroner and Kreator, especially in terms of the technicality of the guitarist’s riffing and overall song structures. When these types of sounds are merged with the aforementioned Swedish aspect, a bit more range emerges, but these influences are definitely going to be less apparent to those raised on “Clayman” as opposed to “Punishment For Decadence”.
Melodic guitar overlays provoke much of the oft-cited comparisons of bands such as Dark Tranquillity and In Flames to the work of Fragments Of Unbecoming. Obviously, this sort of song structuring supplies the “melody” intrinsic in melodic death metal. This particular factor tends to incite cries of unoriginality, but frankly, it’s an ingredient that’s required of this type of music. To remove such influences would leave listeners with a much blander experience indeed and in doing so, would negate much of the vigor a band like Fragments Of Unbecoming dishes out.
As the roaring title track, the mid-tempo “Dear Floating Water” and the biting, blustery “A Faint Illumination” demonstrate, this foursome can assuredly bash out the high-intensity sounds. Nonetheless, Sterling Black Icon – Chapter III – Black But Shining is an album that will most easily connect with die-hard fans of this type of metal method. If you are willing to take the time to delve deeply into this record, you’ll discover a plethora of excellent musical ideas. But if you instead prefer music that strikes you on a purely superficial, less-critical level, this album is likely going to be one that you’ll have difficulty in getting into.
Written by Erin_Fox /metal-archives.com/

Recording line-up
Sam Anetzberger - lead vocals
Stefan Weimar - vocals | electric guitars
Sascha Ehrich - electric & acoustic guitars
Wolle Schellenberg - bass guitars
Ingo Maier - drums
Credits
"Sterling Black Icon" - the 3rd chapter in the history of Fragments Of Unbecoming was transformed to this volume in september/october/november 2005.
The drums were recorded in PMT Studios by Tikk. Watchful assistance and engineering by Christoph Brandes.
All guitars, bass guitars and vocals were recorded and engineered in Sound Tunnel Studios by Ingo Maier.
Mixed and mastered by Christoph Brandes at the Iguana Studios – www.iguana-audioproduction.de
Produced by Fragments Of Unbecoming and Christoph Brandes.
All lyrics and musical arrangements by Fragments Of Unbecoming, except “Chambre Noire” by Marcel Schiborr – www.revelinvoid.de // marcel@revelinvoid.de
Final infinite scream on “A Faint Illumination” by Todd “Brave” Collins.
Band photography by Bernd Siebold.
Digital band picture make-up by Groundfrost – www.groundfrost.com
Artwork was done in cooperation by Niklas Sundin – www.cabinfevermedia.com and Sascha Ehrich.
Layout and design by Sascha Ehrich.
”Fragments Of Unbecoming” logotype by Sascha Ehrich // courtesy of "Precious Art".

EAC extraction logfile from 21. May 2008, 19:11 for CD
FRAGMENTS OF UNBECOMING / Sterling Black Icon
Used drive : PLEXTOR DVD-ROM PX-130A Adapter: 0 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache
Read offset correction : 738
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Used output format : Internal WAV Routines
44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo
Other options :
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename C:\Documents and Settings\kragoth\Bureau\METALMADNESS\FRAGMENTS OF UNBECOMING - Sterling Black Icon.wav
Peak level 99.8 %
Range quality 100.0 %
CRC 1902D562
Copy OK
No errors occured
End of status report