Chaosbreed - Brutal
Olympic Recordings - 2004
By Philip Whitehouse
Brutal, eh? I'll have some of that, thanks. Y'see, an album title so declaratively confident in its content of teeth-grinding heaviness automatically appeals to such a hardened metalhead as myself. But what's this? Chaosbreed is no ordinary purveyor of death metally goodness, they're in fact a supergroup composed of members of Amorphis, The Black League, Moonsorrow and Mannhai! So, naturally it's going to absolutely kick-ass, right? I mean, the last bunch of respected metal notaries to attempt this kind of Scandinavian death metal revival was Bloodbath, and they were ace!
The previous paragraph basically condenses my initial thoughts on receiving this promo and reading the accompanying promotional guff claiming that Chaosbreed "could have spiritually composed all music for Venom, Slayer and Entombed...". I'm still crushed from the disappointment. Brutal is a careless, slapdash effort tacked together by slapping Dismember's guitar tone over some riffs that Entombed would have left on the studio floor, and topping it off with one of the most toe-curlingly bad vocal performances ever heard on a death metal record (thanks for that, Taneli Jarva!).
Admittedly, it's not all a complete waste of time. There are some cool guitar riffs on 'Casket Ride' that lift things above the mundane, and the intro to 'Faces Of Death' sounds so close to Slayer's 'Dead Skin Mask' that it is actually quite enjoyable if taken as homage. Sadly, the moments where Chaosbreed attempt to mix things up negate such moments. 'An Evil Eye' is doomy, dirge-like but totally uncaptivating, making its 6:31 duration an endurance test, while on the opposite side of the fence, the 1:37 exercise in pointlessness that is 'Shitgrinder' could have been jettisoned easily and no-one would have cared.
Just go listen to Left Hand Path again, or go buy Fleshcrawl's latest if you're desperate for some new Scandinavian-style death metal.
4/10
Official Chaosbreed website
Olympic Recordings website
Olympic Recordings - 2004
By Philip Whitehouse
Brutal, eh? I'll have some of that, thanks. Y'see, an album title so declaratively confident in its content of teeth-grinding heaviness automatically appeals to such a hardened metalhead as myself. But what's this? Chaosbreed is no ordinary purveyor of death metally goodness, they're in fact a supergroup composed of members of Amorphis, The Black League, Moonsorrow and Mannhai! So, naturally it's going to absolutely kick-ass, right? I mean, the last bunch of respected metal notaries to attempt this kind of Scandinavian death metal revival was Bloodbath, and they were ace!
The previous paragraph basically condenses my initial thoughts on receiving this promo and reading the accompanying promotional guff claiming that Chaosbreed "could have spiritually composed all music for Venom, Slayer and Entombed...". I'm still crushed from the disappointment. Brutal is a careless, slapdash effort tacked together by slapping Dismember's guitar tone over some riffs that Entombed would have left on the studio floor, and topping it off with one of the most toe-curlingly bad vocal performances ever heard on a death metal record (thanks for that, Taneli Jarva!).
Admittedly, it's not all a complete waste of time. There are some cool guitar riffs on 'Casket Ride' that lift things above the mundane, and the intro to 'Faces Of Death' sounds so close to Slayer's 'Dead Skin Mask' that it is actually quite enjoyable if taken as homage. Sadly, the moments where Chaosbreed attempt to mix things up negate such moments. 'An Evil Eye' is doomy, dirge-like but totally uncaptivating, making its 6:31 duration an endurance test, while on the opposite side of the fence, the 1:37 exercise in pointlessness that is 'Shitgrinder' could have been jettisoned easily and no-one would have cared.
Just go listen to Left Hand Path again, or go buy Fleshcrawl's latest if you're desperate for some new Scandinavian-style death metal.
4/10
Official Chaosbreed website
Olympic Recordings website
than really scary.
