The Fracture Mechanics
Edge Dislocation
Mangonon
The Fracture Mechanics, a heavy metal band from the Buffalo, New York Area, are concerned with structural failures, and place their emphasis on increased safety and reliability when constructing metal songs. Between 1942 and 1953, more than 200 ships had sustained fractures classified as serious, and at least nine T-2 tankers and seven Liberty ships had broken completely in two as a result of brittle fractures. And this really comes out on strong numbers like “Elastic Stress Field Distribution” and “Estimating Stress Intensity Factors.” Their last album, Crack Arrest Fracture Toughness , got some airplay on commercial radio, but only because “Critical Crack Size” wasn’t metal at all, but pop. The band suffered slightly because most “fans” who’d purchased the record did so for the pop song, rather than all this noisy, broken metal music. But, who cares, this, the Fracture Mechanics’s second album, is loaded with Priest-style metal with lots and lots of power – enough to destroy anything if you play it enough. The best songs really are “Compact Tension Specimen,” “Fatigue Crack Initiation” which reminded me a lot of classic Venom or Raven, and “Fatigue Crack Propagation Under Constant Amplitude Load Fluctuation.” That last tune, according to the liner notes, will be their “…Stairway to Heaven.”
Mangonon Records, 150 E. University Blvd., Melbourne, FL 32901.
