Chthonic has been making their presence known here
in the states on their debut U.S. tour, “Unlimited
Taiwan.” The tour includes all stops on this
year’s free Ozzfest tour as well as off dates
with Nile and follow up dates with Cradle of Filth.
Not too bad for your first time overseas.
Regarded as the “Black Sabbath of Asia”
the band (pronounced Thonic) is currently promoting
last year’s Seediq Bale album. That said the
band’s DVD Decade on the Throne and 2002’s
full length Relentless Recurrence album have been
released in the United States as well during the heavy
summer of touring. Like most others that live here,
Seediq Bale was my first experience with the band
and I could honestly take it or leave it. That is
not so with relentless Recurrence though, this is
a tight, crisp, and utterly brutal work of extreme
metal.
“Onset of Tragedy” really kicks this
album off with a blistering guitar riff that awakens
your senses and drives home the idea that this band
is far from new. As the hollow vocal overtakes the
haunted keyboards and riff heavy guitars the song
takes on a life of its own. The album never really
elevates to this level again but few extreme metal
artists ever sound this good, so its kind of a mute
point. “Vengeance Arise” is another example
of the diversity in extremes on this album, showing
off more of the Sabbath influence than on the rest
of the album. “Grab the Soul to Hell”
and “Grievance, Acheron Poem” are faster
moving and more evil sounding than many of the other
tunes and are a solid indication of what would come
with Seediq Bale.
Prior to this I liked the idea of Chthonic but I
couldn’t really get into the music. Relentless
Recurrence is, in retrospect, probably closer to what
I expected Seediq Bale to sound like. This is an excellent
album from a band quickly making their mark in the
colonies. If you saw them play over the summer and
found they were different than you expected than I
recommend picking this up. It’s beautifully
packaged and comes with fantastic cards on which pictures,
liner notes, etc. are spread out on. The package alone
makes this album worthwhile (seriously, no one does
this anymore) but the album is superb as well.
Key Tracks: “Grievance, Acheron Poem,”
“Onset of Tragedy”
Reviewed by Mark Fisher |
