This third album by Chaos Before Gea is a rather mixed bag and by that, I mean the Spanish quintet appear to call on a whole host of influences when styling their sound.
Open track the “The Void” starts feeling very rocky with soaring clean vocals by Ismael Pérez González but as soon as David Arroyo Sánchez ups the pace on the drums the vocals become far harsher and more aggressive, as do Adrián López Castillo and Hernán Jensen Christensen’s guitars, even if the leads manage to maintain the original feel in the way the vocals do during the chorus.
The title track “Chronos” starts slow with plenty of popping bass by Damián Schmitt while Ismael alternates between croons and shouts as the guitars flip between manic riffs and down tuned drawn out ones.
“Rebirth” starts with a rapid little riff that contains a pleasant melody while the guitars and drums swap between pounding and abrupt stops for a great staccato effect. Something they carry on with in “From The Cradle To The Grave” but all the while maintaining the flow by adjusting the vocals to match the ferocity of the music.
A rather mellow build up for “Consciousness, Conscience” goes from clean to distorted guitars with accompanying vocals then the rolling drum fills mellow too out before heading back towards near blast for the outro.
A pleasant Spanish guitar intro and melodic clean vocals bring “Spiritual Awakening” to its heavier verse and chorus, a structure that’s employed once more on “Message Of The Nine” which happens to also contain additional vocals by Javier Pérez González, Christian N. Walsh, José María Tornay and Sara Calzada Múñoz.
The final track “Legacy Of The Flame” is the shortest on the album and funnily enough also the fastest and heaviest, with a more definitive death metal feel to it as it blasts through its riffs and growled vocals, with the occasional clean accompaniment.
While the album itself is not bad at all, and it does have its interesting moments, for the most part it just gets the job done with well-played songs.
(7/10 Marco Gaminara)
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