http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com Extreme music webzine http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com/images/gargoyle.jpg http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com 145 61 For the amount of uncertainty attached to this band, 16 seemed like an act destined for quiet destruction in the early part of the '00s. Relapse Records can be thought of as a silent benefactor of sludge, as they have allowed 16 to become the strongest in their career. (7 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6483 Johnathan A. Carbon Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Melodic. Female-fronted. Electro-pop. Metalcore. From Japan. Doll-faced, pink-haired robo-babe on the cover. Obvious male screamo backing vokills. Nothing on that list rests comfortably next to regular pastimes like pig destroying, goatwhoring, or cattle decapitating. Except, you know, it kinda does. (9 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6471 Dan Lake Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Portal was formed immediately after the dissolution of Cynic by the three original members. While Cynic began as a death metal band with jazz influences, Portal took things further by becoming a full fledged card carrying progressive act. _The Portal Tapes_ are the demos and working material produced by the band before their eventual dissolution. (5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6477 Johnathan A. Carbon Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Explosions in the Sky vs. Gorgoroth. Why not? Red Sparowes vs. Leviathan? Bingo. (8 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6476 Dan Lake Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. This is a death metal band that combines brutality, technicality and progressiveness in what may strike the inexperienced ear as a standard death metal setting -- not a lengthy journey into the vast expanses of technicality and jazz influences. (7 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6474 Aly Hassab El Naby Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. _Blood for the Master_ lasts for thirty-four minutes and it is heavily loaded with chugging riffs and pounding drums. This is a band that doesn't need lengthy tracks or scattered interludes to make its point. (8 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6473 Aly Hassab El Naby Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Opeth influence is readily apparent, and not in some lickspittle genre-aping mimicry. Côté wields formidable songwriting chops, and his talent for blending numerous complementary ideas into forms both moving and vicious makes for engaging musical statements of truly Opethian length. (8 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6489 Dan Lake Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. His fingers find the septstone, seven-sided and rough to the touch. Behind it lie the scrolls bearing the seven horrific incantations. He will unfurl them, but he will chant from memory. The darkness is complete. (7.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6478 Dan Lake Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. If anyone was doubting the presence of extreme metal in Singapore, Impiety is ready to remind us with relentless brutality and hellish chaos. (7 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6484 Johnathan A. Carbon Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. There are many things this live album/DVD intends to do. Most importantly, the record intends to package an experience much in the same way concert films did in the past. (8.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6491 Johnathan A. Carbon Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. What to make of Matt Widener's Liberteer, whose Relapse debut might best be described as epic grind? There's space cleared for groove. Non-metal instruments emerge more than occasionally. And, to be sure, this thing is grind as fuck. (9 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6486 Dan Lake Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Meshuggah could have carved no better name into this massive monstrosity. _Koloss_ drops with the force of a thousand stone-skinned giants sporting jackhammers for legs and nuclear warhead-lined knuckles. (9 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6470 Dan Lake Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Sweet Lord. Narrows comes to us from the arms of two influential hardcore derivations: first is Botch and the second is These Arms Are Snakes. (7.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6479 Johnathan A. Carbon Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. _Ataraxia / Taraxis_ falls in line with _City of Echo_'s short-song philosophy, and none of its eighteen minutes are wasted. (6 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6485 Dan Lake Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. If some of black metal's more dominant players forged their various sounds into modular robotic lions, Pestilential Shadows could be their black metal Voltron. (7 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6490 Dan Lake Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. While _Insurrection Rising_ was a raw and ferocious serving of pure thrash, _Plague of Conscience_ is a more melodic and vocal album with a more measured delivery that successfully keeps the bar high and proud for retro-thrash. (8.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6472 Aly Hassab El Naby Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The 2012 edition of _Dopesmoker_ is almost indistinguishable from its 2003 version. Usually, any album not bootstrapped with new material is never worth the time of day. _Dopesmoker_ is different, as its age and legacy is more than enough to warrant a reissue nine, fifteen and a hundred years from now. (10 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6480 Johnathan A. Carbon Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Many a black metal horde has peddled blasphemies from snow-crusted crags and poorly ventilated basements, but few have achieved so eloquent (and, again, bizarre) a manifesto as _The Murder of Jesus the Jew_. (9 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6487 Dan Lake Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. amazing name aside, Timeghoul was an unsigned Midwestern American death metal band who existed, professionally, for the great expanse of two years. The only reason why I am stressing the oddity of Timeghoul's history is the band could have been in the same arena as Atheist, Pestilence or Autopsy. Fate, however, is a fickle and cruel mistress. (8.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6482 Johnathan A. Carbon Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. _Buì_ is being labeled "Gaelic Doom Metal". So how exactly does Gaelic doom sound like? I can't exactly describe it based on experience, because _Buì_ isn't really doom per se. (5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6475 Aly Hassab El Naby Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Worm Ouroboros is being grouped into the contemporary evolution of heavy metal. It is difficult to even pinpoint what genre the band would fit into if they were heavier. Perhaps doom? Maybe black? (6.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6481 Johnathan A. Carbon Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Neurosis. Before the mid-'90s, that single word might not have sent tremors through the extreme music audience, but it sure as shit should now. The band has chewed up barriers like Popeye chews up spinach, each swallow making them stronger and more ferocious. http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=1-1160 Dan Lake Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Secrets of the Sky have crafted a keyboard-enhanced death march that treads the muddy (bloody) terrain between doomy old-school tones of terror and an Isis-style climb toward their higher selves. (4 out of 5) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=3-6488 Dan Lake Sun, 06 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. If the record's title is to be believed, then I'm now obliged to create something absolutely massive, because the trauma endured by listening to this record simply cannot be overstated. And it's the good kind of trauma, the kind that reminds you that living is about more than tax returns and annual performance evaluations. (9 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6454 Dan Lake Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. What if Charlie from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and my friend Zohair were driving around lost in a city they didn't know? What if I used sushi as an appetizer for a tomato-based Okra stew? What would it sound like if Cult of Luna did their own stretched out rendition of Pie Are Squared's "Forever and a Day"? (2 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6456 Aly Hassab El Naby Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Listening to BSW's downtuned madness for more than twenty minutes will make you start hating yourself, and they've packed a full hour of it onto this grim plastic platter. (8 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6465 Dan Lake Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Deschain seek the same wide-eyed catharsis offered by so many unfashionable post-tagged bands: witness the crescendos, the blood-boiling melodies, the periods of slow ambience, the earth-cracking aggressive low end in support of towering guitar leads. (7.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6467 Dan Lake Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. How is this shit not on Ipecac? Not that I've heard much of what passes for an Ipecac release recently (the Fantomas-Tomahawk-Isis withdrawal still burns too deeply), but if any respectably heavy outfit ever broke through the discerning (sn)ears of the oft confounding Mr. Patton, it would be Dimesland. (7 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6458 Dan Lake Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Maybe some of your new associates stumble (literally) upon a band's old rehearsal space. Maybe, in a rare moment of irony-turned-reality, it's Aerosmith's rehearsal space, whose members have been the most reliable basis for all current zombie research. (7 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6455 Dan Lake Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The irony still lies in the fact that Job for a Cowboy switched to a traditional death metal style for their 2007 full-length debut _Genesis_ and has not changed course since. In fact, the band has little to do with deathcore's beginnings other than their name and a generation of listeners unwilling to forget. (6.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6461 Johnathan A. Carbon Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Last year, I had the pleasure to interview Judd Madden, an Australian who runs a one man progressive stoner bedroom project with shockingly pleasing results. In 2011, Madden released two albums (_Drown_, _Float_) both exploring new lands with the wonder of early settlers. (8 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6462 Johnathan A. Carbon Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Wow. Has an album of recorded music ever borne a title so egregiously inaccurate? Without trying to be ironic, I mean? The rollicking, meaty riffs and bluesy soloing hardly qualify as dismal, and none of the albums eight crushers come within ten country miles of hollow. (8.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6464 Dan Lake Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. In the hearts of the forever trendy, where naught lives but whispers of the next deep underground phenomenon and the perennially old-school, post-metal is dead. In the ears of the adventurous and those of us willing to actually listen, albums like _Trephine_ can light that old fire and remind us all why we hung around the Isis fountain for so long. (7 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6453 Dan Lake Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The band prepares for their 18th album to be released this summer. _Freak Puke_ will see a reduction in band members, leaving King Buzzo and Dave Crover to be supported by Mr. Bungle bassit Trevor Dunn. Before a new era in the Melvins history, we are given a chance to say goodbye to the current with _The Bulls and the Bees_. (7 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6469 Johnathan A. Carbon Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Italy's philosophical ambient project New Risen Throne has given birth to its third album; a recording concluding a trilogy, so we're told, of albums dealing with the concepts of annihilation and rebirth. (2.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6451 Chaim Drishner Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. With equal interests in epic and gothic doom set to the pace of a funeral dirge, Pallbearer delivers sobering melancholy, which is of course backed by 20 tons of grief. (9 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6460 Johnathan A. Carbon Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. With every record, one can find face ripping riffs executed with sniper-like precision that set the bar for tech-death higher and higher. (7.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6452 Aly Hassab El Naby Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. There are few times, besides the exquisite closer "Apparition", where the tempo drops below manic. Within this insanity, however, are small yet crafted layers of subtlety. Without sacrificing an inch of brutality or integrity, the band has reached a critical stage in album making. Behold your mental unraveling. (8.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6463 Johnathan A. Carbon Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Stormcrow's 2005 full-length _Enslaved in Darkness_ forges heat-seeking riffs, a monstrous sound, and the songwriting chops of a molten-metal-for-blood Megalodon shark into a fully engaging 28 minutes of terrifying death. (8 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6468 Dan Lake Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Genre delineations sure ease the writer's job of cluing in a prospective audience to the particular qualities of a recording. When those simplistic categorizations fail, though, the resulting auditory experience can be exalting. What, for instance, do you call Syven's new slab of textured sorrow? (8 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6457 Dan Lake Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Italian. Psychedelic. Ritual. Doom. Speak the words, softly, then louder. Taste them, like the sticky sweetness of a sugary syrup, like the iron-salty tang of a mouthful of blood. Swallow the clotting mess, breathe the acrid, ego-melting fumes. Disintegrate into mindless awareness. Surge forward from some intangible temple to slay false temporal stasis and all fear of being. Be. Speak. Taste. See. (8 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6466 Dan Lake Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. How often does a friend present you with a slickly packaged demo CD with genre-neutral artwork that she found on the side of the road outside her house one morning? And of all the times that's happened to you (the current count for me: once), how often is that demo CD awesome? (4.5 out of 5) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=3-6459 Dan Lake Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The death metal pilgrims celebrate their 12th album and subsequently 24 years in existence. If one were to tally up the amount of death seen in Cannibal's Corpse's albums, the number would be staggering and mimic a medium sized battle. This is the type of legacy one has come to want and deserve. (8 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6447 Johnathan A. Carbon Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. For the past few records, Drudkh has been exploring more progressive territory, beginning with the excellent folk record _Songs of Grief and Solitude_ and ending at the beautifully crafted yet poorly welcomed _Handful of Stars_. _Eternal Turn of The Wheel_ returns to the band's formative black metal sound, both refined and raw. (8.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6443 Johnathan A. Carbon Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Progressively melodious paired with textured harmonies complete with chunky, fat riffs and solos of wild abandon, ISD is nothing if not overtly and captivatingly resourceful. (8.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6445 Aaron McKay Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. _Agape_ does not pretend to be an overly complicated post-black or incredibly dramatic 'suicidal' black metal album. Lantlôs discerningly pick and choose from both subgenres and add much of their own, seamlessly alternating mood and pace. (8.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6448 Pedro Azevedo Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Where does frontman / founder Peter Tägtgren find the time? Producing bands recently like Immortal, Overkill, Belphegor, Septicflesh and Abigail Williams all in addition to Pain and his better known outfit, Hypocrisy, it is obvious Peter has found the answer to somehow bending the time continuum in his favor. (5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6446 Aaron McKay Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Unlike its triumphant predecessors, _Redemption at the Puritan's Hand_ didn't even feature in the choices of any of our writers for album of the year. Could this really be such a wretched effort by Ireland's finest metal export? (7.5 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6449 Pedro Azevedo Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Following a decade of touring metal styles, Sigh has returned with an album intended for dimensional destruction. We have begun a new game and every card in this deck is now wild. (9 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6441 Johnathan A. Carbon Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. It's hard to believe these Finnish masters of dark folk hadn't released a new full-length album since 2006, but it soon becomes apparent when listening to _Saivo_ that they have lost none of their stunning ability. (9 out of 10) http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=2-6450 Pedro Azevedo Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The best albums of 2011 have been elected. Now it's time to go back in time for a look at the very best 1991 had to offer, and their present day relevance. http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com/Articles.aspx?id=6-1159 Aly Hassab El Naby Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT en-us All contents copyright 1995-2004 their individual creators. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.