Evil Wrath - Chaotical Invasion
Imagine yourself back into the nineties black metal scene. Two guys in corpsepaint doing all the music in this band. Dirty, raw production was the name of the game with blastbeats and just enough punk groove to keep fans interested. Bring anything to mind? If anyone reading this said "Darkthrone," then you're right! To listen to Evil Wrath's "Chaotical Invasion" is to listen to Darkthrone all over again; at least, the early Darkthrone known for "Transylvanian Hunger" and "Under A Funeral Moon". The music is cold, buzzing, and has plenty of punk and groove to make this sort of black metal enjoyable. The only thing that separates Evil Wrath from the black metal legends is that their vocalist is a bit higher in pitch.
Most of the tracks here are straight up speed black metal, such as "Les Tenebres De La Conscience" and "The Downfall of Existence" for their speed, the fuzzy tone the guitar creates to overshroud the drums unless they aren't on a machine gun rampage and the individual beats are separated enough to be heard. Then there's the slower, more rock punk songs such as "Feeding the Flames" (which is by far the least 'black metal' track on the album simply for the extremely slow pace of the song and they way the riffs are performed) and "Hell Marches To War," which is still black metal in the sense it sounds very evil, but retains the groove of punk and rock. While the riffs may get repetitive and monotonous for their downtuned, distorted style, they aren't just blast beats the whole way.
There are some problems with the repetitiveness though. Between some of the tracks like the unholy trio of "Chaotical Invasion," "Hell Marches To War," and "La Sphere Malsaine" the band opens the song with the exact SAME riff. For the first few seconds every one sounds like the former, which for the most part is downright annoying. Thanks Satan for tracks like "Death Symptom" which starts with a drum assault for once, and culminates into a solo, rather than the same riff that all the other tracks started with all throughout. It takes a full listen of each song to finally hear the differences, rather than skip around because the listener will think he or she is hearing the same structure from the last song.
Anyone who liked the nineties black metal scene where the music was raw but had groove to it will find this enjoyable. Yes it's Darkthrone all over again, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. There's about a hundred other bands out there that try to pull off the same style, but go for more extreme riffs and low production and forget about the groove, which is obviously the most important part that separates Evil Wrath's black metal from just being sheer noise. Let's just hope they don't follow into a pure metal punk style or it will be laughable as they try to become the next Darkthrone.
Most of the tracks here are straight up speed black metal, such as "Les Tenebres De La Conscience" and "The Downfall of Existence" for their speed, the fuzzy tone the guitar creates to overshroud the drums unless they aren't on a machine gun rampage and the individual beats are separated enough to be heard. Then there's the slower, more rock punk songs such as "Feeding the Flames" (which is by far the least 'black metal' track on the album simply for the extremely slow pace of the song and they way the riffs are performed) and "Hell Marches To War," which is still black metal in the sense it sounds very evil, but retains the groove of punk and rock. While the riffs may get repetitive and monotonous for their downtuned, distorted style, they aren't just blast beats the whole way.
There are some problems with the repetitiveness though. Between some of the tracks like the unholy trio of "Chaotical Invasion," "Hell Marches To War," and "La Sphere Malsaine" the band opens the song with the exact SAME riff. For the first few seconds every one sounds like the former, which for the most part is downright annoying. Thanks Satan for tracks like "Death Symptom" which starts with a drum assault for once, and culminates into a solo, rather than the same riff that all the other tracks started with all throughout. It takes a full listen of each song to finally hear the differences, rather than skip around because the listener will think he or she is hearing the same structure from the last song.
Anyone who liked the nineties black metal scene where the music was raw but had groove to it will find this enjoyable. Yes it's Darkthrone all over again, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. There's about a hundred other bands out there that try to pull off the same style, but go for more extreme riffs and low production and forget about the groove, which is obviously the most important part that separates Evil Wrath's black metal from just being sheer noise. Let's just hope they don't follow into a pure metal punk style or it will be laughable as they try to become the next Darkthrone.
- Intro
- Les Tenebres De La Conscience
- Chaotical Invasion
- Feeding the Flames
- Hell Marches To War
- La Sphere Malsaine
- The Downfall of Existence
NHR records
Reviewer: Colin McNamara
Apr 15, 2010
Apr 15, 2010
Next review:
Bloodthirst - Sanctity Denied
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