As French black metal veers from the sublime to the ridiculous finding new bands can be a bit of a minefield. For every Deathspell Omega there is a Fadades, however there are usually a few clues to help sort the genuinely kvlt from the terminally desperate. Decent artwork, interesting song titles, band members not gurning around in Robert Smith wigs with egg whisks strapped to their arms, you know the sort of thing. The artwork certainly fits the bill on this debut EP from Incipient Chaos, avoiding the tired clichés of bleak scenery and band members in their most evil poses. A look at the band line up intrigues me further as I discover that every member of the band is called Chaos with a simple 1 to 5 to differentiate between them. For some reason this irks me in a similar way that some bands choose not to name the songs on their albums, just number them. Why go to the bother of creating something then stripping it of identity?
The initial assault of ‘We Live’ is a very dull standard black metal riff with the metronomic annihilation of a snare drum with an intrusive and annoying tone. Given a verse or so and the band start to settle into a more interesting style. The vocals, ably provided by Chaos 5, are packed with enough spite and venom to retain the interest as things develop, but overall it all seems a bit sloppy. The more deliberate pace of ‘Redemption By Lie’ is a vast improvement in every respect with the discordant tremolo riffing providing that element of aural and mental discomfort that is almost mandatory for this aggressive, confrontational type of black metal. As we move on the band sound more confident with every track as the influences of Gorgoroth and Marduk really start to shine through and by the time we get to the excellent ‘Black Hate’ it is obvious that these guys genuinely have a lot to offer. Mixing slower doomier elements with blasting filth and anguished howling vocals, the track shows off what we can expect from these guys in the future.
After a quite clumsy start ‘Sulphur’ is an EP well worth persevering with as the quality improves throughout on every level and by the end I’m eager for more, which I really couldn’t say after the first couple of minutes. They are by no means the finished article yet, but considering that the band only formed earlier this year there’s masses of potential here. Definitely worth checking out if you like your black metal angry and brutal and I’ll be very interested to hear what they come up with next.
(7/10 Lee Kimber)
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