CHTHONIC - Takasago Army
October 4, 2011, 12 years ago
(Spinefarm)
Really, for a band that appears at face value to be weird (crazy image, crazy instruments, crazy aesthetic), this Taiwanese melodic black crew dish out a pretty safe form of corpse-painted filth. Yes, filth certainly comes to mind with this carnival of keyboards bashing up against tons of great riffs that are way more trad metal than expected. I dunno, I always go into this band’s albums expecting it to be as zany as SIGH or something, but the end result just kinda makes me exhale strongly and tiredly, the sound being completely slick and done to perfection (I mean, check out the solo section of ‘Southern Cross’… this is nothing to scoff at, and, again, the metal is pure here, not icy dark), but just so safe in ‘11. Back in the late ‘90s, sure, look out, here comes CHTHONIC. But at this point, this band would be more effective if they lose the image and the keys and just start life over flexing their MAIDEN muscles, as that—oddly—is where this album shines (see closing two minutes of last tune ‘Quell The Souls In Sing Ling Temp’, raise horns high).
