Release Date June 19th, 2026
Format Digital
Genre Progressive Technical Death Metal
Origin Canada
Conflux Collective is a Montreal based collaborative death metal band centered on guitarist Chase Fraser and drummer Tommy McKinnon, musicians connected with Continuum, Decrepit Birth, Animosity, Derelict, Akurion, Neuraxis, and Augury. Their first release, the 2016 EP "The Inception", took shape soon after Fraser and McKinnon reunited and began composing together. Several years of silence followed. McKinnon later returned to unreleased guitar drafts from Fraser, rebuilt the arrangements, wrote additional songs, performed the bass parts, and completed lyrics rooted in personal collapse, survival, and renewal.
The debut full length "In The Wake Of Saturn" adds guest vocals from Eric Burnet, Max Lussier, Jesse Brint, Mallika Sundaramurthy, and Jeffrey Mott. Each voice brings a different register and temperament, turning the vocal presence into a chain of changing perspectives across the album. With eight songs packed into just over half an hour, this independent release expands the approach introduced on "The Inception" into a complete and far more developed form.
"In The Wake Of Saturn" combines nineties death metal aggression with modern tech death precision, progressive arrangement choices, and controlled melodic relief. Fraser’s guitars move through rapid tremolo runs, dissonant chord shapes, clipped rhythmic turns, and lead work placed where it can leave an impact while sparing the album from constant soloing. McKinnon’s drumming is relentless and detailed, shifting accents and meters at high speed while maintaining a firm link to the riffs. His bass adds lower register definition beneath the guitar heavy mix, which helps the more intricate runs remain readable.
The rotating vocal cast changes the emotional temperature repeatedly, moving from deep gutturals to higher attacks and layered eruptions, although some transitions arrive too abruptly. McKinnon produced the album, while Jeanne Comateuse handled mixing and mastering at Magma Art & Sound. The production is compact and bright, with drums placed near the front, wide guitars, and enough separation for smaller details to register. During the busiest stretches, the drum presence can dominate the lower frequencies and narrow the impact of the bass. The lyrics deal with grief, fear, defeat, control, survival, and rebirth through personal images, bodily decline, spiritual struggle, and post human anxiety.
This content places an emotional core inside the technical construction, preventing the album from becoming a cold display of speed and precision. Several arrangements stack ideas so quickly that individual riffs disappear before fully settling, a choice that can reduce their lasting effect. The recurring melodic lines and lyrical arc restore focus, and the compact runtime stops the constant motion from turning into fatigue. This is a disciplined, intense debut with intricate musicianship, varied voices, and enough emotional damage beneath its precision to rise above routine tech death. Repeat plays are necessary, since the details arrive faster than one pass can process.
|8.0
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