Four years after their very well received debut ‘The Human Repellent’ I Chaos are back with ‘Masterbleeder’. Ten tracks of furious thrashing death metal featuring new vocalist, Tobias Borra (ex-Cypher) replacing Harry Van Breda (now in Body Farm).
Bearing in mind that the guitarist, bass player and drummer are also smashing it in highly regarded thrashers – ‘Dew Scented’ (good band – pants name) you’d think that I Chaos would sound similar. Nope! This is a far more brutal prospect.
Way more self-assured than their debut, on this album I Chaos really hit their stride. Not that ‘The Human Repellent’ was poor, it wasn’t, but this is a super-solid example of unrelenting, brutal yet technical (not overly so) death metal that should see the band winning a legion of new fans.
Now I’m not a fan of overly ‘fancy’ death metal and this album reminds me a bit of Pestilence before they went all shit jazzy in parts, in others like a blend of Job For A Cowboy & Lamb Of God. Wicked stuff.
No doubt these guys are awesome musicians, check out some of the solos on tracks like ‘Blinding Bias’, but they’re not playing the ‘fretsex’ game. Kicking off with ‘Waking Hell’ the band kicks you repeatedly in the face with a fast, bludgeoning song which features some amazing drum work from Koen Herfst. The album doesn’t let up from there on in with nine more tracks of quality death metal.
The and riffs are memorable enough and Tobias Borra’s roaring vocals are brutally aggressive but still intelligible. While on the subject of the vocals I would have liked a little bit of variety as they can be a bit one dimensional but that’s being picky.
Recommended for death metal fans after something a little bit different.
(8/10 Mark Eve)
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