I had the pleasure of reviewing Chaos over Cosmos’s 2021 album “The Silver Lining Between the Stars” and what an exciting album that was. It is, to say the least, an adventurous work which was awash with technical and progressive metal and more besides. The indications were that for “A Dream If There Ever Was One”, the band has developed the instrumental mix still further.

39715, announces the lady. What does it mean? It could be a flight number. What it does mean is a breathtaking technical-melodic guitar sequence which announces our journey. Heavy tech-death is launched at us at breakneck speed. Little cosmic twists are slipped in, but this is all-out technical metal with touches of early Soilwork in the style. A cleaner vocal appears in the background – that didn’t work so well for me – and all the energy, of which there is plenty, is devoted to the relentless whirlwind of technical energy. Such is “Fire-Eater”. It’s like being on an express train while being surrounded by flashes of colour and light. “Navigating by Moonlight” showed early signs of not being drowned in flamboyant technicality, but it largely is. Away it hammers. The chorus stands in the background, hardly surprising with all this frantic activity going on. Last time I round I identified elements of speedy Finnish style melo thrash. Here it is again, mixed with death metal elements. The keyboards play a bit part. There’s too much going on to allow them in. Crashing thunder irregularly interrupts the further technical feast of “A Mantra of Oppression”. The storm shows no sign of abating. I liked the distorted sounds within it. It adds interest to the all-out assault. A dark voice appears through the flashing light. In with the background wall of sound, it’s almost like listening to one long guitar solo. Bands like Norther come to mind. It was nice to hear a soothing cosmic element at the end. It doesn’t develop into anything however and nor does the promising start of “Ebb and Flow(ers)” which develops into another heavy tech extravaganza, with hints of cosmic interference. The chorus doesn’t work, being too lightweight and floaty and distant against the hard wall. It’s kind of metalcore but the key thing is that it doesn’t have impact. Out of the blue a dreamy electro cosmic section appears. I found the switch a little clumsy, and the song altogether too full of loose ends to work properly.

An interlude comes in the form of “Melatonin” but it is like a breather rather than an integral part of the experience, such has been the unrelenting assault. As I listened to “Cascading Darkness – We Will (re)Seed”, I reflected that too much was happening. Heavy melodeath and running at pace with overtones of Soilwork and with the distant chorus and inevitable technical solo, it’s like a piece for its own sake. I was almost fed up with it by “Two Cannot (re)Pair” but I must always give credit to the quality of musicianship, even if it seems an exercise in gargantuan mixing. The anguished chorus had no context. The cosmic programming seems incidental. “Worlds Apart – You Must (re)Build” has the same qualities and aspires to be epic in a metalcore way, but just doesn’t do it. There are plenty of bands from Finland and Sweden who do it better. And that is it. “Worlds Apart – You Must (re)Build caught me out as it’s structured in the same way as everything else and there’s no climax. There is a bonus track “Asimov” which tells us that Chaos over Cosmos are good at technical metal, but we knew that already. It does have a dreamy moment towards the end, making me wonder where those dreamy moments had gone to.

“A Dream If Ever There Was One” is impressive in its way thanks to the relentlessly flamboyant technical metal but I found this to be all over the top. I couldn’t detect any concept behind it. Yes, there’s technical metal, Scandinavian style melodeath and a vocal output which seemed to me to be disconnected, but for me this album lost potential sophistication and balance in the overwhelming mix and search for complex technical heaviness. It’s cold and lacking in soul, I found. If you like technical metal, you’re in for a treat. For me however, this album was so intense and laboriously structured that it took away the imagination of any journey that was in it.

(5/10 Andrew Doherty)

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https://chaosovercosmos.bandcamp.com/album/a-dream-if-ever-there-was-one