Fractal Gates’ debut album, “Altered State of Consciousness”, released by Rusty Cage Records is a fine slab of melodic death metal. Since this French band is a relatively new act I got in touch with lead guitarist Stéphane Peudupin who answered our questions.

First of all congratulations with your debut album. Are you happy with the way it turned out?
Thank you! Yes we are quite happy with the result. We really worked quite hard to get it sound the way it does and did our max to release some quality compositions. I would say it’s the result of work and passion for this style of music. I might add that Andrew Guillotin of Hybreed studio and Jacob Hansen really did some excellent work at getting this album sound good. We of course now feel as though it could have been enhanced, but everything can be enhanced all the time…

Could you tell us a bit more how Fractal Gates was formed?
Fractal Gates was born from the ashes of a  previous band me and Seb were in called Mislead. We wanted to create a more melodic and catchy type of music and based on one of our passion which is science fiction. We started as a 2 person band, wanting to just create compositions we liked, to a full member studio and live band. We had a few line-up changes, but now we seem to have found a stable and solid formation. We created the band in august 2007, and entered studio in august 2008, showing that we are quite a motivated band.

Musically you play what I would call upbeat melodic death metal. Concerning the guitar melodies I clearly hear a Katatonia influence. I guess that band is a source of inspiration but I can imagine other bands have inspired you as well. What can you tell about your inspiration?
Well I wouldn’t say specific bands inspired us, I would rather say melodic death metal of the 90’s is music we really appreciate. We really like that style and feel upbeat metal should be this way. This music talks to us. Now that said, of course we like bands such as Katatonia, At the gates, In Flames, Amorphis and so on. But when creating our songs, we try to find riffs we like. It’s all about creating songs we really like for us but also for the listener.

Lyrically you guys deal with science fiction, extra terrestrial life and topics like that. Is this a concept you will stick to? What can you tell us about the lyrics in general?
Yes, like I said earlier, science fiction, extra terrestrial life forms etc. is a great passion. Me and Seb are quite a lot into this. Fractal Gates was born out of this we can even add. Fractal Gates means after all the gates, portal of infinity, or “discovering the infinity”. It’s all about discovering things, solving mysteries, believing in science and magic, life in outer worlds etc. Our second album will deal also with these subjects, either in an imaged or normal way. I suggest readers to get “The 12th planet” by Zecharia Sitchin.

You released a 4 song demo prior to the full-length. What can you tell about this demo? Did you re-record those songs for the album?
We released a 4 song demo without really releasing that. It was available on MySpace for listening and downloading. We wanted to release this demo on CD format, but we realized that at the speed we were going, it would be better to just release the 1st studio album. The demo was interesting, it was all done on my computer , but the sound of course was not that good. But the overall result was OK. We might release that in the future if there is a demand. There are 2 songs from the demo that we recorded in studio for the debut album, but we decided to remove them and maybe include these songs on the 2nd CD. We had too much songs for our debut CD, we removed 3 songs overall. We removed ‘The Experiment’, which is one of our best songs, that will definitely go in the 2nd CD , we removed ‘Revival’, which is a song a bit too happy but very catchy, and ‘Clone Child’ which could be reformatted for the 2nd CD.

You got signed to Rusty Cage. Was this based on the demo recordings or based on the full-length? I understood you had everything recorded before you signed any deal right?
It was based on the full-length CD, we were supposed to send the demos but we preferred to send the studio album with the proper sound and songs. I think its better to show the best of what you do then sending a poor sounding demo.

I guess the deal with Rusty Cage was the best offer. Have you been in contact with many other labels?
Rusty Cage Records proposed the best deal yes. They are very active and professional people and understand the needs of a band. I would say Rusty Cage Records is a “no bullshit” label.
We had some other propositions from labels, but it would be better to not mention the names.
I might add that we later on signed with Great Dane Records, which is one of the biggest French underground metal label, they distribute the CD through Season of Mist. We signed for a distribution contract with them, and they are really great people.

You guys are also active in other bands like Inborn Suffering, Ningizzia and Cold Insight. Isn’t it difficult to combine these bands? What’s going on with these bands anyway these days?
Well it can seem hard, it takes time …  But we really like what we are doing, it’s a important sacrifice you could say. We manage to cope with our different bands through good organization. As for me, Ningizzia on hold for a bit , I might resume that with Niclas (Forest of Shadows) next year or so. As for Inborn Suffering we are preparing our 2nd CD, and we are really thrilled with that. And for Cold Insight, Seb is finalizing the compositions and might record a CD album in a couple of months. As you can see we are quite all productive.

I understood you’ve already started working on a second album with Fractal Gates. Anything you already can tell about that?
Yes, we have already 3 new songs for that album in rough version. We really like the result and feel as though we really achieved what we were searching for. I think our fans will definitely like that 2nd CD as it is even more catchy and nicely written. We feel as though we are composing our best songs … But of course everyone says that each time something new is created… Its our unbiased opinion. On that second album we will put ‘The  experiment’, a song we removed from the debut album and there will be other surprises …  I want to add that this second album is the logical sequel to “Altered State of Consciousness”.

Any other plans you might have for the future? Any tours or upcoming gigs?
For now we are just focusing on the songs of the second CD, and we are perfecting our live performances. We have some plans for gigs fall 2009, but we will start them when we feel ready. We will start by performing in France, then we will see … Holland, Belgium etc, etc ..

All right, that’s it from my side. Any last words?
Live your true life, remember that imagination is what creates our future and makes us go forward, be strong and stay metal !

Thanks a lot for your time.