GMD Poll: The Chasm's Discography Ranked

We will also be needing an autistic breakdown and in-depth track by track review of every album.

I wish I had time for that because I'd be more than willing.

I've been stuck with the instrumental now for a while and don't remember which of the previous album is which so I have to got through them again to be able to rate.
 
Procreation of the Inner Temple (1995)

Confessions and a Strange Anxiety - 3.5/5 (independent melody lines, good lurching near 3 minutes in, builds up well, potential 4)
The Day of Liberation - 3.5/5 (love those uplifting ringing chords)
Honoris Lux Infinitus (A Whisper of the Moon) - 3.5/5 (doomy and weighty)
A Dream of an Astral Spectrum (To an Eternal Hate) - 2.5/5 (kinda A Blaze-style, black/death metal with some dissonance, not good though)
The Lonely Walker (My Pride and My Wrath) - 2/5 (see Conqueror only it feels like an extended outro without a song but better in that it has a cheesy 90s video game credits song feel)
Stair to Aspirations - 2/5 (half of it has a stupid Virtual XI happiness to it)
Conqueror of the Mourningstar - 2/5 (like a sloppy fusion of weepy melodeath and a 90s Metallica ballad)
The Cosmos Within - 2/5 (guttural vocals, more death metal chugging riffs, and some blasts, probably an early song)

From the Lost Years... (1996)

Torn (By the Sunrise) - 3.5/5 (totally aimless for the first minute, kinda builds into a USPM trot, starts making sense at about 3 minutes where they half-revisit the earlier aimless riff but more controlled and with a thrash beat in Anacrusisian fashion, sappy tremolo solo climax is sappy but I appreciate the effort, if they cut the repeated part after and went straight into the last minute this would be a 4)
Procreation of the Inner Temple - 3.5/5 (instrumental, funny gong sample or something, weirder on the whole and the only Chasm-sounding song so far)
The Gravefields - 3/5 (atmochasm)
An Arcanum Faded - 2.5/5 (strong first half but got into a boring black metal rut in the second half, marching trad/black riffs)
I, the Past Finder - 2.5/5 (pretty close to black metal, lots of ringing chords, ok but inoffensive)
Secret Wings of Temptation - 2.5/5 (jumps around a lot but the pacing hardly changes)
Our Time Will Come - 2/5 (basically Emperor-style black metal)
Lost Yesterdays, Impossible Tomorrows - 2/5 (bonus track apparently, same problems that plague 80% of this album, the guitar tuning is perhaps most blatantly fucked on this one when they do those harmony bits)
Deathcult for Eternity - 2/5 (really basic chord progressions and these acoustic riffs are quickly getting annoying)
Ascencion of Majestic Ruins - 1.5/5 (same problem as Deathcult except now it's wimpy too)
My Tideless Seas - 1/5 (gothy meloshit, still not that offensive but 9 minutes is fucking absurd)
 
Procession to the Infraworld (2000)
Deathcult for Eternity: The Triumph (1998)
The Spell of Retribution (2004)
Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm (2009)
From the Lost Years... (1995)
A Conscious Creation from the Isolated Domain: Phase 1 (2017)
Conjuration of the Spectral Empire (2002)
Procreation of the Inner Temple (1994)

After listening and then relistening to Deathcult for Eternity: The Triumph and Procession to the Infraworld back-to-back once I was done with the whole discog I have to finally conclude that while Deathcult for Eternity: The Triumph is more adventurous and for me had an immediate appeal, Procession to the Infraworld is so direct and focused in its savagery and I found that the songs contained therein really worked their way into my brain and got trapped there. The drumming especially was a massive highlight that pretty much tipped the scale in its favour in and of itself. A++ death metal mindblasting shit.

Okay now that this is over with, I'm going to check out their demos and EPs.
 
Alright, gonna go through this discog album by album.

PROCREATION OF THE INNER TEMPLE
The debut isn't really relevant to me, it's too undeveloped and hard on the ears and why even bother with it when they have six masterpieces you could be listening to?

FROM THE LOST YEARS
This album is so murky and weird and I love it. I love the copious use of acoustic guitar that barely gels with the rest of the music and everything being out of tune all the time. And I still find it easier to listen to than Deathcult which can be rather harsh and trebly. It's a bit messy but it also has maybe the highest peaks of their whole discography. I love the final two tracks especially and "The Gravefields" will always be one of their definitive statements for me, especially lyrically, even if it's not that characteristic musically of the style they would develop. And Corchado's vocal performance is fucking insane, maybe even better than on Deathcult.

DEATHCULT FOR ETERNITY: THE TRIUMPH
The first Chasm album I heard, and probably the quintessential one. It's hard to even pinpoint a single weak song in this tracklist, where every other album has several. Don't really have anything to say about this album that hasn't been said better by no country or one of his alt accounts.

PROCESSION TO THE INFRAWORLD
Gonna go against the grain and rank this fairly low - it's probably their most aggressive album and that's not really my favorite style of theirs. It's also their worst-produced album outside of the debut. It's still an amazing, tight-as-fuck album that always seems to end too soon.

CONJURATION OF THE SPECTRAL EMPIRE
The accusations of bloat that get leveled at Spell seem more fitting to Conjuration imo. The bookends and tracks 5-7 are great but outside of that I find this album drags a bit (by The Chasm standards, anyway)

THE SPELL OF RETRIBUTION

I'll defend this album to the death, sure it's a bit overlong but it peaks high and even the fluff kicks ass so it never feels like it's stalling for time even though most of the heavy hitters come in the second half. Remains of the Covenant, Retribution of the Lost Years, The Omnipotent Codex are all amazing and The Eclipse is just bonkers, if I had to nitpick that song I'd say it's so climactic it's almost gratuitous. The Chasm in general is one of my favorite bands to run to, and this album in particular is my favorite for that use, and every time I get to that part around the halfway point of The Eclipse I just get so insanely pumped.

FARSEEING THE PARANORMAL ABYSM
I didn't always love this album but it has grown on me and I'm going to rank it fairly highly because it stands out in their discography for being a slight departure from their usual style without being below par for it. This is The Chasm at their most soundscapey, with every other song a gargantuan instrumental. It's the soundtrack to a long and sorrowful journey through a senseless world, and I guess that's what all of The Chasm is about really, but this might be the dreariest of all their albums, between the mournful, doomy epics like Vault to the Voyage and the closer, and the absence of those so-characteristic euphoric climaxes, you know the ones. Maybe it's not their tightest release, but I can forgive this journey a few detours because the final destination is one of the most monumental fucking closing tracks in all of metal.

A CONSCIOUS CREATION FROM THE ISOLATED DOMAIN: PHASE I
People call this Farseeing but without vocals, and I don't agree at all. It completely lacks the dynamism of Farseeing. The tracklist indicates that it's split into four discrete movements, but it just feels like this unending maelstrom of riffs, like I'm listening to a Deathcult Arrival-esque opening track that just goes on and on for 65 minutes. That it's one of their least interesting albums has nothing to do with the absence of vocals. It just doesn't go anywhere. They need to slow it down and doom it up more and throw in more ominous synth interludes or whatever.

Final, basically impossible, 50% arbitrary ranking;

  1. From the Lost Years
  2. Deathcult for Eternity
  3. The Spell of Retribution
  4. Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm
  5. Conjuration of the Spectral Empire
  6. Procession to the Infraworld
  7. A Conscious Creation from the Isolated Domain: Phase I
  8. Procreation of the Inner Temple
 
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Alright, gonna go through this discog album by album.


PROCESSION TO THE INFRAWORLD
Gonna go against the grain and rank this fairly low - it's their thrashiest album by far and I'm not that into thrash and I also think it's their worst-produced album outside of the debut. It's still an amazing, tight-as-fuck album that always seems to end too soon.

Interesting. To me, The Spell is the thrashiest by far. I think Procession is their most straight up death metal record and it's certainly their most rhythmically violent.

CONJURATION OF THE SPECTRAL EMPIRE
The accusations of bloat that get leveled at Spell seem more fitting to Conjuration imo. The bookends and tracks 5-7 are great but outside of that I find this album drags a bit (by The Chasm standards, anyway)

Tracks 2 and 3 > 6. I was actually going to say this is the album where the bloat started as it does have a fewer weaker moments like tracks 4 and 8, but that's not as many as The Spell and it has more peaks.

A CONSCIOUS CREATION FROM THE ISOLATED DOMAIN: PHASE I
People call this Farseeing but without vocals, and I don't agree at all. It completely lacks the dynamism of Farseeing. The tracklist indicates that it's split into four discrete movements, but it just feels like this unending maelstrom of riffs, like I'm listening to a Deathcult Arrival-esque opening track that just goes on and on for 65 minutes. That it's one of their least interesting albums has nothing to do with the absence of vocals. It just doesn't go anywhere. They need to slow it down and doom it up more and throw in more ominous synth interludes or whatever.

This actually sounds fucking amazing, but unfortunately it isn't that for me. None of these tracks are on the level of Deathcult Arrival.

Also, perhaps my ears are too well adjusted to low-fi black metal, but I have never had any issue with the production on Deathcult at all. Everything is perfectly audible and clear and I don't find it harsh or trebly at all. Conjuration hammers on the higher frequencies more and I feel that one could be described as trebly in some moments.
 
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