Artwork by Erskine Designs
Style: Dissonant Death Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Obscura, Ulcerate, Gorguts
Country: Canada
Release date: 28 February 2025
Dissonant death metal is having a tiny moment at the beginning of the year at the Subway. Less than one full month into 2025, we’ve already reviewed a couple of releases in this particular style, with a few waiting in the pipeline, too. So does Memories Fragmented get lost in the cacophony of its cohort? Or does it stand above the furious fray?
Crown of Madness’ first full-length release follows a string of earlier works: two EPs—The Void (2022) and Elemental Binding (2023)—as well as an appearance on a split, …Of Madness and Death, also from 2023. Memories Fragmented feels like a natural progression. The LP improves upon almost every element of its predecessors—particularly the guitar work, which for my money is some of the most inventive in this niche sub-genre in quite some time—shaping the dissonant aspects of the band’s sound into something both awe-inspiring and menacing. Guitarist (as well as vocalist and bassist) Sunshine Schneider has a real knack for weaving passages that feel like a writhing, world-devouring serpent slowly coiling around the senses, such as in “Ashes of Mine” or “Sea of Fangs.”
This stringed serpent isn’t afraid to bite, either. Tracks like ”Sovereign Blood” or the instrumental “Deafening” offer plenty of traditional death metal riffage to accommodate anybody who’s only dipping their toes into more experimental flavors of the genre—before they take the inevitable plunge. But the real magic remains in the dissonant, sad motifs: like in “Burden,” where the guitar lines seem to diverge, change directions to come back and converge, and then overshoot each other to diverge in opposite directions yet again in hypnotic, ouroboric fashion.
The snake is brought to heel by drummer Connor Graham, whose four limbs—which I can only assume are nicknamed Heracles, Indra, Marduk, and Thor respectively—move with the strength and precision of mythical beings who have faced giant wyrms of their own. He is a beast on the kit and he wants you to know it. Yet, as with some of the most interesting mythical figures, a strength can also be a weakness. With only some exception, the drums are constantly “at ten.” For example, “When I Don’t Remember You” would have a lot more character if the drums weren’t an infinite ammo machine gun mowing down even the quiet bits (I know the snake is scary but please don’t kill it). It’s all physically and technically impressive—but also a tad distracting at times. By contrast, the vocals don’t demand quite as much attention. If you’re looking for standout vocal work that goes toe-to-toe with instrumental creativity and variety of Memories, you’ll be left wanting. That’s not to say they’re particularly bad in any way; they just feel like the most replaceable aspect on any given song. The gutturals and rasps are fairly one note, staying mostly in one register in their respective categories.
Everything comes back to the guitars for me, though. A question that popped into my mind more than a few times while listening to this LP was: How can music so dissonant be simultaneously chock-full of beautiful melody? It feels like it should be against one of the laws of physics, possibly all of them. Could I get a scientist to go check on that for me? If you run tests on the closing track (and my personal favorite) “The Grand Design,” that should give you all of the data you need to formulate a working hypothesis.
Looking at the Crown of Madness Bandcamp page and seeing the various physical editions and merchandise options, I can’t help but think that Transcending Obscurity is betting that this album will live up to the label’s namesake. I don’t recall the last time I’ve seen so many things to buy from a group with fewer than 1,000 monthly listeners (as of this writing) on the biggest streaming platforms. I have no sense of what will make any particular artist or album successful, but Crown of Madness’ Memories Fragmented has made me a fan—so they’ll sell at least one vinyl.
Recommended tracks: “The Grand Design,” “Ashes of Mine,” “Sovereign Blood”
You may also like: Devenial Verdict, Hierarchies, Ingurgitating Oblivion
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Transcending Obscurity – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Crown of Madness is:
Sunshine Schneider – Guitar, Bass, Vocals
Connor Gordon – Drums
