I’m pretty certain this is the first Moldovan band I’ve ever wrapped my ears around, and what a belter it is too. For a debut album, and hailing from a country that isn’t exactly teeming with metal related bounty, this is nothing but gold, gold, and more gold. Chordewa play progressive black metal (probably more prog than black, but they do like to give a good blast of extremity to rattle your fillings more often than not) and they kick seven shades of crap out of a good stack of their laurel-resting mainstream contemporaries.
Kicking off the album with a spacy, robotic voice and wandering piano piece, it isn’t long before ‘Psyche in the Shell’ flexes its muscles and coats you in technical spite, with blasting drums, squealing pinch harmonics and roaming synth which begins to gust through the proceedings. Calling on Vintersorg, Borknagar and later-Arcturus for inspiration, this really is a feast for any prog nut who likes to keep it extreme. There’s even a lot of moog like forays/solos, which should keep Amorphis fans happy, but to my ears, the bands main influence is Ihsahn’s solo material (perhaps with some later Emperor added into the mix too). The whole album drips with drama, plump with an airiness which satisfies, and a technical edge which really impresses. Blazing riffs marry up perfectly with the synthesiser work, even weaving in the occasional twisted dreamy sequence on ‘The Spiral’, replete with pinging jew’s harp and a droning didgeridoo styled hum.
Choppy rhythms, spacy synth and progressive songwriting are of course the reoccurring theme throughout, but also the fine vocals. Traumer hits every note of his clean vocals with aplomb here, and his blackened rasp is also perfectly enunciated to allow every word to be understood clearly. Seriously, this guy is every bit as interesting as Vintersorg in the vocal department if you ask me (perhaps the only issue is that he sounds quite a lot like him, rather than having his own distinct tone). Still, this is a minor quibble for me, as I’m a big admirer of both! The rhythm section should also have a mention, as it’s what drives the album through – constantly shifting and creating interesting rhythms which are never predictable.
To be honest, I think it’s a shame that this CD release is limited to a super-mean 100 copies on their own label, because the music certainly deserves more exposure. I could easily see these guys sitting comfortably on Candlelight Records and garnering quite the following given the right promotion, and being given the opportunity to support the right bands on tour. Fingers crossed that they make the transition, because their talent for writing mind-bending proggy blackness more than justifies it!
(8/10 Lars Christiansen)
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