The Black Map #275: Fraught from Dublin!

When you think of the capital city of Ireland, what is it that springs to mind? Dublin is of course the home of our favourite black brew Guinness, the Irish Whiskey Museum and of course a castle but none of those things are what this feature is all about. Instead we set our sights on talking about some of the lesser lights of heaven in th Underground Metal scene and today, it’s time to shine a light on Blackened Sludge Metallers Fraught…

Formed in 2018 from the ashes of Coldwar, Warpath, Mortichnia, Wound Upon Wound and Slave Zero, the band were initially conceived as Drought and dropped a debut titled EP “MMXIX” in the year that was 2019. Changing their name in 2020 to Fraught the five piece worked tirelessly at the furnaces to create a follow up and 2021 EP “Splitting Tongues” was the fruit of those labours. A vision for Extreme music encapsulating influences from Sludge, Death, Black and Doom Metal sounding expressive, suffocating, eclectic and cathartic, it not only caught the imagination but the attention of Italian label Argonauta Records. The band returned to their rehearsal space to write a debut album “Transfixed on Dying Light” which was subsequently recorded, mixed and mastered by Shaun Cadogan at Last Light Recordings in Dublin Ireland during the winter of discontent of 2022. A cathartic November 2023 release via the label, the masterwork comprises seven deadly sins which combine Death, Black and Sludge Metal variants as “The Hunt” evidences…