Fractured was an electro industrial act from Canada, that started in 2003 as a solo project of legendary musician Nick Gorman. His first release was a demo titled Contami-Nation, whose marvelous qualities caught the attention of an European label, Dependent Records. Soon afterwards, Fractured became more of a real band, with the addition of two musicians, Famine and Morgana. The trio together worked, conceived and released in 2005 the debut album, Only Human Remains, a formidable and fantastically original masterpiece, that came to be Fractured’s most successful and iconic release. 

With eleven tracks – What Is The Moment Of True, Only Human Remains, Everytime, Becoming One, Bleed, Between The Lines, Haunted Memories, Stratified Society, One More Time, Try To Forget and Cold Eyes – this record undoubtedly is a milestone in the history of industrial music. With sinister and hazardous, though imperiously melodic and exponentially intense harmonious layouts, Only Human Remains became an exceedingly majestic underground reference for the genre, with its derelict and lugubrious, though sensible and dense style, that definitely contributed to establish more serious, professional and artistic principles to industrial music as a whole. 

The most notorious songs from this album are the title track, Only Human Remains, Becoming One, Bleed and One More Time. Despite all of its undeniable qualities, versatility and authenticity, Only Human Remains is an underestimated album, that never achieved the true degree of recognition and acknowledgement it deserves. Although deeply appreciated by the underground – moreover, a small, though devoted group of cult followers – the album displays sensible, melancholic and intuitive peculiarities, that reveals a powerfully creative and audacious musical narrative, with crucial and deeply innovative elements, that configures on the diagram of its sonorous anatomy a gracious level of inventiveness, that demonstrates an elegant and marvelous degree of brilliant cohesiveness, originality and dedication, relatively uncommon in the genre.     

Several years after Only Human Remains, in 2011, Fractured released its second (and so far, last) album, Beneath The Ashes. With the departure of Famine and Morgana, this record is basically a solo effort of Nick Gorman, and not a collaborative group creation.

With twelve tracks – Beneath The Ashes, For What, You Are (The Voice Inside My Head), Anaesthetic, Transcendental Rage For The Fundamentals, Dig, Save Me, Straight Jacket Fashion, Interlude, Fly Away, We Bare These Scars and
Disengage – this album has more serene and melodic tunes, and reverberates protuberant, sophisticated and elemental idiosyncrasies, that represents an elegant and creative evolution, that condones an artistic departure from the more crude and rough sonorous surface of the previous album, that, despite its unexpected level of gracious and virtuous originality, was more closely associated to traditional industrial music.

With mordacious and sensational audacious overtones, the almost radical change in style reveals a restless artist with an unquestionable disposition to reinvent himself without fear of trying new things. Despite its elegant harmonies and sensitively genuine sonorous outlook, this album is not as fantastic as the previous one, nor did it draw so much attention. Nevertheless, Nick Gorman displays his diligent musical abilities, and exposes the creative density and outright versatility of his graceful talent. My favorite tracks in this album are: You Are (The Voice Inside My Head), Dig, Straight Jacket Fashion, Interlude and Far Away. 
 
For me, these four tracks are the most representative of Fractured’s music, and their most elegant, lugubrious, dispersive, pungent and incisive songs.

This is certainly my favorite Fractured music, and probably the first one that I’ve heard, several years ago. A formidable, lucid and spectacular exemplar of industrial music, its hostile and rough tonalities reverberates on its renitent sonorous diagram a sensible and perceptive conjuncture of harmonies, that gracefully contrast its impenitent and hazardous ordeal with the poetic and beautiful majesty of the song’s melodies.    

Here, you have the same song, though in a different version (described as the “original” one). It’s exceedingly beautiful and elegant too – with more fatalist, imperative and auspiciously dense melodic overtones – that certainly increases the ascendant corporeal cohesiveness of the rhythmic body of the music, expanding vividly in more diluted and overall flexible passages. In my opinion, somewhat inferior to the previous version, nevertheless, this is an outstanding and exhilarating song, that deserves its place of honor. 

This is my second favorite Fractured song. One More Time is a beautiful and melancholic industrial serenade, whose melodies transpire a lugubrious and fading humanity, conceived by the gracious depressive musical layout of a primordial and comprehensive artistic sensibility. 

Becoming One – in order of preference –, is my third favorite Fractured song. With a very lucid and sagacious melodic direction, the song reverberates a subtle and discreet agony, that is overtly dispersive and cynic, though fulfilled by a spiritual aneurysm that overcomes in the depths of its furiously dense harmonies the darkness of reality. 

Conclusion: 

Since Beneath The Ashes – released eight years ago – Fractured hasn’t released anything. So, it’s hard to define the project’s exact whereabouts, if it’s in a dormant state or if it’s ceased to exist for good. 

It’s difficult to say if Nick Gorman will ever release another album under the Fractured moniker. Apparently, the project never officially disbanded, so it’s impossible to say precisely what’s Fractured current status, especially giving the prolonged hiatuses between albums. Nevertheless, we certainly wish nothing but success to Nick Gorman in all his musical (or non-musical) projects. If he ever reform or release anything in the future under the Fractured name, we will be dying to check to it out, in great expectation. If not, the album Only Human Remains will always be an iconic release of industrial music, a genuine milestone, cohesive and beautiful enough to consolidate his legacy and contributions to the genre. 


​Wagner

Aphotic Apathy is a dark ambient musical project, created by American musician Alex Alexander, active for a year, from early 2015 to early 2016. So far, the artist has released several records under the moniker, which are literally impossible to define precisely how many they are, as well as their exact order of release, since Alexander has the habit to delete albums from his Bandcamp page, whenever he feels the desire to. He also re-uploads them sometimes, with an entirely different cover artwork.  

On this article, I have analyzed all the records the artist currently has on his Bandcamp page. They are, by order of release, The Engineers, Nostromo, The Space Jockey, The Elders and Paradise. Some records, like The Sevastopol, were deleted, and are not available anywhere, not even on YouTube. The artist has also deleted his Soundcloud, as well as his Facebook page, for reasons unknown. 

Aphotic Apathy delivers a peculiar style of dark ambient, that, as the artist himself describes in his profile, is basically influenced by the tense, ambiguous, afflictive and sinister atmospheres of Alien and The Predator movie franchises, that he tries to recreate. For this reason, all his albums addresses a particular story – you can read each one of them in his Bandcamp page –, whose main goal is to drive the listener into a dark fantasy dimension of doom and demise, inspired by the lugubrious, horrifying and dreadful nature of the movies mentioned above. The story behind all the albums are mostly interconnected, each one of them can be seen as a chapter that is part of a larger picture. 

The first album, released almost four years ago – on March 15, 2015 – is The Engineers. I already reviewed this album (you can read the review here). 

The second album, Nostromo – originally titled The Nostromo – was released only a few days after The Engineers, on March 30, 2015. 

This record has twelve tracks. They are: 1) Awaken; 2) Mother; 3) Signal; 4) LV-426; 5) Derelict; 6) Exploration; 7) Space Jockey; 8) Cargo; 9) Eggs; 10) Host; 11) Nostromo; 12) Narcissus; a far more easier, cathartic and soft album, this is probably the most homogeneous, expansive and dilated work on Aphotic Apathy’s discography. Nevertheless, it’s an extravagant and beautiful record, that attests the compromise, the stylish lucidity and the overall professionalism of the artist, that presents to his audience a cold sonorous density, upon which you can really feel yourself transported into a distant, dangerous and hostile faraway place. The story that underlines the album reads: “The crew of The Nostromo consists of seven people from various fields. They include Captain Dallas, Warrant Officer Ripley, Navigator Lambert, Engineering Technician Brett, Executive Officer Kane, Science Officer Ash, and Chief Engineer Parker. All awoken by "Mother" the computer mainframe that served aboard The Nostromo. Mother also operated many of the ship's background systems, and auto-piloted the vessel while the crew were in hypersleep. 

Before the crew awoke, Mother partially decoded a unidentified warning signal that started emanating from LV-426, Mother awoke the crew from hypersleep to investigate and hopefully recover a potential parasitoid specimen from a derelict ship located on the moon. Unbeknownst to the crew, except one member Science Officer Ash who was given a classified retrieval order by Weyland-Yutani, Special Order 937: Which ensured the retrieval and survival of a sample specimen of the species located on LV-426, and stipulated that this task superseded all other priorities, even the safety and survival of the crew.” 

To give you some insight about how the artist tries to tell a story, and capture precisely the nature and the atmosphere of the situations upon which the underlying sound portrays with its dark tonalities and obscure devices, the ninth track, Eggs, probably – and very discreetly – displays a chapter of the space odyssey where the breed of the parasitoid specimen mentioned above breaks the eggshell, being born to life. 

The next album, The Space Jockey, was released only a few days after its predecessor, on April 11, 2015. A more concise album, this record has only nine tracks: 1) Biomechanoid; 2) Astreunuchen; 3) Mundus Gubernavi; 4) Corridor I; 5) Corridor II; 6) Necronom; 7) Hieroglyphics; 8) Derelict Cockpit; 9) H.R. Giger Tribute; an album that mostly follows the style of its predecessor closely – albeit with excruciatingly more sinister and frivolous, though discreetly afflictive sonorous tonalities, The Space Jockey, despite the fact that this record can be considered an excellent exemplar of dark ambient music, is probably the most simple and predictable of them all. 

Nevertheless, its lugubrious, realistic and dense atmosphere can drive the listener directly to the undying horrors lurking in the darkness of the unknown dangers that hide within this universe of abnormal fear and ferocity. The sixth track, Necronom – which is a possible reference to H. P. Lovecraft’s Necronomicon – certainly is the best, the deadliest and the most macabre of the entire record. 
 
The story behind this work reads: “Long before Prometheus uncovered the origins of the Engineer and his species, the mysterious 'Space Jockey' for many the most mysterious thing of the Alien film was held captive in everyone’s mind. The lonely sentinel first encountered by the doomed crew of the ship Nostromo, the haunting discovery of the enormous lonely star gazer remains one of the most memorable moments in the Alien franchise. Based on the iconic bio-organic industrial designs of Swiss artist H. R. Giger, who designed every detail of the fossilized sentinel. 

The Space Jockey, a tragic traveler who fell victim to his own lethal cargo and was forever frozen, trapped in time and space.”

H. R. Giger, mentioned above – and whose ninth track is a homage to – was a notorious Swiss artist, who was part of the special effects team for several movies, including some of the Alien franchise. He was the original creator of the Alien creature, as well as the space jockey, for which this album is named. 

The next album, The Elders, was released in June 5, 2015. With eleven tracks – 1) Transcendence; 2) Primordial; 3) Reverie; 4) Council; 5) A Planet; 6) Sacrifice; 7) Creation; 8) Evolution; 9) Return to Paradise; 10) Elders; 11) Vessel; – this is easily the most accessible, peaceful and serene of all albums in the Aphotic Apathy’s discography. 

With a placid and ostensibly calmer musical layout, and a very patient – though relatively sinister occasionally – style, the melodies prevalent on this album are like graceful symphonies forgotten in the colorless winds of time, whose harmonious dissonances share its sincere, devotional and elegant features with the cordial densities of a tranquil and sentimental honesty. In several ways, this is the most distinct and singular album Alex Alexander (assuming that this is his real name) released under the Aphotic Apathy alias, since its mostly soft, innocent and almost affable nature displays an atmosphere radically different from the other albums. 

This subtle change in style certainly was created purposefully, with the aim to transmit to the listener the somewhat friendly nature of The Elders, a race of knowledgeable and transient aliens, that periodically travels to Earth, to assist the human race with their splendorous grace and wisdom. As the story reads, “The Elders are a wise, respected race who are knowledgeable and technologically advanced. The Engineers have been around for at least 35,000 years according to the cave paintings discovered by Holloway and Shaw (Prometheus); The other (Elders) are hundreds of thousands of years older than the Engineer and that is evident from the Elder's wrinkled, thin and almost wood like skin. They have the ability to travel through space. They returned to Earth numerous times to teach various civilizations an unknown number of things. They also partake in sacrifices/ceremonies in which they sacrifice a young Engineer of their own to create a species that resemble them (Humans). 

Not much is known about The Elders, but I believe them to be a non-hostile force that seeks only to create life and share knowledge. I guess you can refer to them as Priests.”

The music of this album is severely translucent and omnisciently oblique. The serenity that drives around the delusional matter of its creational harmonies transpose the peaceful diagram of light upon which the universe was conceived. Everything is quiet and useful, and the sensibility that relies on the conscience of humankind will seek an everlasting kingdom of glory, whose splendor will shine for the centuries to come. 

With splendorous harmonies that seeks the grandiosity of its expansive, salutary and sincere gestures, definitely, The Elders can be considered the most fantastic, profound and gregarious album of Aphotic Apathy, and its excellent level of creative melodies – merging with colorful densities and textures that highlight the brilliance of an unknown universe that has yet to be fully understood – certainly underlines the audacious originality of the artist’s quintessential pragmatism made of intricate and infinite possibilities. 

Like the artist himself complement, “this album will encompass a Space, Ethereal and Dark Ambient atmosphere that showcases the Elders life in the way they conduct themselves as Creators.”

The final album available in Aphotic Apathy’s Bandcamp page is Paradise. This record was released on April, 30, 2016 – after the longest gap between this project’s albums, almost eleven months had passed since its predecessor – and has eleven tracks:  1) Journey; 2) Arrival; 3) Descent; 4) Uncharted; 5) Passage; 6) Hope; 7) Dazed; 8) Monument; 9) Aphotic; 10) Debris; 11) Advent; with nefarious and delusional passages, the album rescues the basic principles, the most underlying, subjective and inherent elements of the artist’s style, but with a more neutral detachment from its own projective reality: an ubiquitous sound, sinister contrivances, dense and slow atmospheres, opaque, but elegant and dispersive harmonious expansions, soft and lethargic melodies, are all perfectly entangled and combined to deliver a dilated tissue of somnolent, but cohesive sonorous dilapidations, that slowly reveal the exoskeleton of distant and singular personal symphonies, that rests peacefully within the sensitivity of an interior and pale planet.   

An exceedingly beautiful and captivating album, Paradise is also a serene – though relatively mordacious – gathering of melodies, that will reinstate over the diluted perceptions of your conscience a whole new galaxy of future memories, upon which the music shall elevate the graceful allegories of an infinite and laborious solitude, that is eager to understand the grandiosity of its own genuine and visionary artistry. 

Definitely a captivating, lucid and more sober space ambient album, Paradise delivers a conjuncture of renitent, but glorious harmonies, whose serenity expands a molecule of light throughout an empty universe corroded by sorrow and despair, that can liberate all degrading desires that reinforces the deliberative insolence of human existence. Despite its unusual simplicity, this album has an imponderable and effectively urgent integrity, that revolves around the sensibilities of its own impeccable creative standards, closing with discreet and sublime splendor a superb and original space odyssey, that certainly has aggregated with its audacious and horizontal authenticity a whole new paradigm of creational possibilities within the genre. Without any fear of being equivocated, Paradise is probably one of the most fascinating, singular and diffusive albums of Aphotic Apathy’s discography. 

The Sevastopol is one of Aphotic Apathy’s albums deleted from his Bandcamp page. There is also an unofficial album, titled Predators, available on YouTube. 

Well, this is it. Basically, what is known about Alex Alexander – again, assuming that this is his real name –, the creative force behind Aphotic Apathy, is close to nothing. He is apparently a Florida-based musician, that is involved to a certain degree in another musical projects. His last Aphotic Apathy album was Paradise, that was released almost three years ago. Since then, he hasn’t released anything under this moniker. The first three albums he released in rapid sequence. In March 2015, he released the first two, The Engineers, in March 15, and The Nostromo (retitled Nostromo) in March 30. The Space Jockey was released a few days later, on April 11, and almost two months later, on June 5, The Elders was released. In April of the next year, 2016, Alexander released Paradise, so far the last Aphotic Apathy album. 

It’s improbable the artist will ever release again under this alias, since he has deleted his Soundcloud and Facebook pages, and the long hiatus so far indicates that he probably have lost the interest. I may be wrong, and in this case, I really wish to be deadly equivocated. Aphotic Apathy was a very original musical endeavor, that has aggregated an exceedingly genuine, extraordinary and potentially creative outlook into the genre, delving deeply into the surreal, dense and fascinating, but morbid, nefarious and sinister universes of the Alien and Predator movie franchises, designing for its albums a macabre and agonizing conjuncture of realistically dreadful soundscapes, that certainly can be defined as the most perfect background soundtracks ever created for these stories, that – although were never used in the movies – definitely aggregates a whole new level of afflictive darkness for its mythology and folklore. 


​Wagner

Nobody has ever seen the sacred distant cities
Like I have
They exist in a parallel diluted world
Where all cosmogonies intrinsic to a resolute perennial life are unknown to men 

Circulating in a diffuse world of wonderfully promulgated science
Their beauty, majesty and grandiosity are incomparable
I personally understood the desire
To visit them
I would decipher everything about them 

In an accidental night of torrid emptiness 
I could suddenly see them
In my dreams 
All the sacred cities – in the slightest and brightest details
And I was able to communicate with the cities’ elders 
In a language unknown to human beings
They are eager to transmit their everlasting knowledge to me
And I surrender, I want to know everything, I am exceedingly thirsty for knowledge, everlasting grace and abundant life 

And when they are about to grab my hand to make me pass to their side
I awake
I fall to this world
Surreptitiously 
Endlessly
And I was never capable of dreaming of them again

A hazardous density strikes the most introspective thoughts
Ambiguity rises
as poverty reduce silences 
Nothing seems proverbial, children cry cities made of dust and agonies

Your soul will be questioning a sincere alliance with the downfall of melancholy 
Anything but emptiness would be justified 
Towards our own sad propensities, we relentlessly feel that invisible universes explode in absurd angles that strikes incomparable levels of miserable existence
As the endless rain begins to fall in the night
intrinsically     

Nobody has conceived the fugacious
Elements 
of its own
Convoluted anxiety 
We live in miserable solitary grains of empty splendor that nobody has ever seen

What we all want to desperately feel – the night guardian has irreparable expectancies that retain humankind’s morbid delusional inclinations towards an endless sleep  
Shadows move, but nobody has seen anything beyond the infinite desert of stones that is everywhere to be seen 
Saturated by an epigram of desolated cruelty
The dark cosmogony of a persistent life
Armies of shadows march towards the dehydrated pyramid of its own destructive essence
Suddenly, a million sun rises – the unexpected return that nobody has ever admitted
In a peculiar instant of cosmos drudgery 
Everything is calcined  
Cemeteries disappears