Yeah, I guess not. I know you like them and I understand the reasons that you like them, which are the exact same reasons I dislike them as much as I do. It's strange though that they get compared to Incantation, one of the darkest death metal bands in existence (and bands generally). Perhaps this isn't a good comparison for them then. Incantation is the second most similar artist in voting (which I actually voted DOWN) to The Chasm. They're also apparently similar to both Demigod and Funebrarum, two other bands specifically notable for the dark atmospheres and feelings they conjure up.

However, I think you are right that they can't be compared to one band, since they have a mixture of styles going on. Either way, I find them to be devoid of heaviness, sadly so. Putting brutality aside (which they absolutely lack), at least they could be heavy and I don't even feel they achieved that much. And like I said, the flat low-end lacking guitar tone and crystal clear production don't help any of this along.

But I find it difficult to believe that darkness is not something they are, at least peripherally, aiming for. Since epic and transcendental do not exclude the pursuit of darkness as well, and their themes feel as if they are, at least, attempting a degree of darkness. Their themes feel Lovecraftian to me, like dark-ish epic sci-fi/fantasy. Even in your own review, you described them as dark in your concluding paragraph. Regardless, they do not feel the least bit dark to me, and thus they failed to provide an important aspect I look for in death metal.

As Emp says, The Chasm aren't really your usual DM band. Their first couple of albums are very death/doom oriented, in the vein of the early Mexican stuff, hence the comparisons to Cenotaph and Shub Niggurath, which in turn owe a lot to Incantation. I guess you can see where the comparison really comes from and you'd be hard pressed to find any similarities to Incantation on their mid or later periods. But even in early stages they already had this, and I wouldn't call it progressive per se, sentiment of epic flow where the riffs roam freely for a while until a lead occurs, then some more wild riffs and some other lead. That way of going from OSDM to something more epic and "out there" has always been a part of their sound. And whereas their early albums had a lot of both worlds (i.e. the brutal and the epic) the later ones are more focused on the epic aspects.

In a way they remind me of an ethnic/epic version of Tiamat's Astral Sleep, although you should take that comparison with a pinch of salt really. As I said before one of my best mates is an absolute fan, and although we share 80-90% of bands in DM there are some that just fall on the other side of the fence for both of us. I for instance can't get into The Chasm, which he loves, and I've long ago stopped trying to do so because I've realized they don't have what I'm looking for. I'll give out that they have good musicians and a great sense of melody and good riffs and leads and all... But for me it's just the way everything is glued together and arranged that doesn't work, hence why I read the review and thought it touched some aspects I agreed with.

I don't think I'd rate any of their albums lower than 50% because all of them have some redeeming degree of musical quality, but on the other hand I don't think I'd rate any higher than 60-70% because they all lack good songwriting. Giving it a really low score is understandable to a point but I think it's not realistic when you judge all of their musical aspects.

Their darkness isn't the filth of Incantation or those other bands, but a more bizarre and carnivalesque/Lovecraftian darkness. I wouldn't really describe them as having no darkness, nor would I go so far as to say they're "light," but just that it's not the point of their sound to be morbid or evil really. It's a theatrical darkness, a dramatic one if you will.

They are devoid of any redeeming qualities to me musically/sonically. I hate just about everything about them and I think I expressed this pretty clearly in my review, so technically my score of 24% is rather generous really. However, I do think they are good musicians and performed well on the album in that respect, but that's really the only thing I'd say is any good at all about that album, their performances.

As for the darkness aspect, the darkness they attempted, whatever kind or flavor it be, failed in my eyes. That album doesn't feel dark to me at all, in any sense, and that's a negative to me.

I respect your opinion.

With that being said my point was that the music has quality despite the (in my opinion) erratic songwriting. I've listened to probably too much bad music with horrible vocals and inane musicians to classify something, that even though I admittedly dislike like The Chasm, as bad music. To me it sits in that place where I can say it's good but not my style, and there's a difference between something being bad and one disliking it.

For instance, I don't like Slayer (yeah beat the crap out of me for that) but I will say that they're an important band that has good albums when asked about them. They're just not my thing. While something doesn't please you it doesn't mean that it's a musical void, know what I mean?!

I don't know how many times I can say the same thing. You said my review was a touch repetitive, but you are making me repeat myself. -_- I know what you are saying, but I disagree with you that there is anything redeeming about them. They are utterly devoid of all appeal to me, other than the fact that they can play their instruments, which doesn't impress me really, because bands with far less technical skill have achieved such a higher level of artistry and appeal to me, such as Amebix for example.

Also, influence doesn't affect how good a band's music is. Besides, I don't think The Chasm have been particularly influential at all, or maybe I'm just not aware of bands they've influenced, but like I said, it doesn't really matter to me.

Metal is pretty much all about the mighty RIFF and The Chasm has no good riffs. That alone could warrant a 0%, tbh. But, I'm aware that there is music out there I have not ever heard that may be worse than The Chasm (they didn't receive my lowest score, btw), so that's why I gave it the score I did. Room for leeway. But, I think you are getting way too hung up on the numerical score and not focusing on the important thing, the review.

Not at all mate, I was just trying to reinforce my point. Probably didn't need to.

I'm usually a guy who can see and agree with both sides of an issue, so while I agree with many points of your review I can also understand why some people think otherwise. And I usually devote such low scores for the really bad stuff, you know when people can't even play their instruments right or the songwriting is inexistent.

Not joking you around, I was just making conversation. Hey, this is a discussion board isn't it?!

People clearly disagree about my assessment, sure, considering the album has 9 glowing reviews. All of them obviously found things in The Chasm that appeal to them, but I did not find anything. It's much worse than that in that they did things I actively hate (especially in death metal). I was very excited when I first decided to try them out based on the fact that practically every review was raving mad about how good they were and when I put on Procession to the Infraworld for the first time.... I was just dumbfounded as to the overwhelming praise for this band. I was massively disappointed.

And like I said, technical skill is not required to make great, long lasting, impactful music. See: practically the entire old school punk and hardcore punk scenes. Attitude, atmosphere, passion and songwriting can far overcome any deficiencies a band may have in technical skill.

Drumming Edge, I think you make a reasonable case for why you and perhaps others do not like The Chasm, but you throw in the word "brutality" maybe a dozen times in that thing, and seem to find it a real problem that The Chasm falls short in that area even though they're going for something completely different. I also couldn't help but notice that every other band you mentioned in that review sounds well...nothing at all like The Chasm. Who are these people who compare them to Incantation? They're so wrong. maybe they just say that because Daniel played guitar and did vocals on Diabolical Conquest, but his own band really couldn't be more different: towering melodious riffs, leads flying all over the place again with loads of overt melody, a completely different vocal style that certainly isn't aiming for brutality, and so on.

I do find the band to be pretty dark at times but "triumphant' is indeed a good way of elucidating the feeling of much of their music. Other vague adjectives like cosmic and vast also come to mind. I'm not really sure why you threw in all that stuff about lyrics and so on even though I agree that some of those long songs could use vocals to add a little texture to things. It's a shame that this is likely to be the last Chasm album as I actually think they're capable of topping it, as good as it is, and that Conjuration and Deathcult are still probably their best.

Yeah, you guys should really downvote Incantation from similar artists on The Chasm's page. It's irking me.

I did (-5 ), Abom should do it too.

You don't think death metal should have some level of brutality? I certainly do. They lacked all brutality. But if you have been following the discussion here, I don't even think they are remotely heavy. I said this also in my review, "a general lack of heaviness everywhere" was my phrase.

And didn't I thoroughly go over my issues with the lack of lyrics and vocals? Pretty sure I did. It was very relevant and important to me, which was discussed in my review.

Also, I only ever compared The Chasm to one other band in my review, which was Incantation, and it really was a very loose comparison, because I don't think they sound much like Incantation either. Like I said, I down voted them as similar to Incantation a long time ago.

And does it really matter that they may have been aiming for something completely different than brutality? That's partly why I think they suck....

So you don't think bands should be judged on the merits of what they were going for, and how good they are at it, rather than how well they achieve some standard of a genre? I think bands can do anything they want and shouldn't be forced to stick to conventions of the genre; that sounds like a really boring musical world otherwise.

Guys, this is the same dude who thinks that Manowar is the best band ever and that Joey DeMaio is the savior of metal. You shouldn't take his opinions very seriously.

PS: The Chasm rules, by the way.

I'm with Emp and Abom in this case, and as I said repeatedly I don't even like the band!

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/G ... isted_Mind

"I know my doom. I am not being pretentious, but I am confident when I say I know my doom. I've loved the genre for years, a love which continues to grow and I have done my fair share of research. So, when I talk about doom metal I like to think I know what I am talking about."

And he calls Ghost "doom"

Ghost is so flowery that even those European romantic gothic doom-lite bands are doomer than them. I guess having "evil" imagery is enough to make them doom to some.

People say in earnest that they've conducted research on a music genre tend to be those who've spent more time reading blogs, reviews and shoutboxes than listening to the music.

Let's not confuse DrummingEdge for EmeraldEdge, now.

Terrible reviewer grasping for anything to write about.

"The album structure is similar that that of the band's classic Crystal Logic that thrusted this band into immortality, with all tracks being mid to longish length while the last track being by far the longest of em all."

Of all the comparisons to make, track length? That's not really true either, as half the tracks on Crystal Logic (including the prologue) are under four minutes and only two exceed five.

Still, he's one of the few sensible folks that didn't give Ghost a score above 50.

The guy who reviewed the new Convulse album needs to do some research. He bitches that there are only "two songs" on it, but obviously downloaded it from somewhere, otherwise he would know that there are FOUR songs, according to this: http://www.facebook.com/Convulse#!/phot ... =1&theater

Two things. One, technically there are only two new songs, and I stress new since the other two are live cuts. Two, maybe that's just like that for the tape version?

Svart themselves market it as a two track EP: http://www.svartrecords.com/shoppe/deat ... il-cd.html

Lol, wut? You are pathetically confused about who I am and what I like.


This isn't the standard of the genre I'm judging by, but my own standard and what I want in MY death metal. There is nothing invalid or wrong at all about this. We all do it all the time. They failed to reach my expectations and what I wanted, so they failed at creating a good death metal album, in my eyes. This isn't hard to understand. I don't know what the difficulty about this is.

Fuck's sake, you're right BH!

Sorry DrummingEdge. As pointed out by Mike, I confused you with someone else (someone who also happens to be a massive anus). I apologize. You're still wrong about The Chasm though

PS: Damn similar usernames!

To confirm, the promo packet I received for the EP had just the two studio tunes.

You are forgiven, but you may not avoid a quote party by me for my signature. My sig is rather bare, and I think your quote might fit perfectly in it.

PS: I'm absolutely correct about The Chasm from my perspective. Since I read my own mind and it said: The Chasm sucks!, so I can't be wrong. Unless I'm delusional and my own mind is lying to me about what my mind really thinks. But this is impossible, I just say no to drugs (except alcohol, unlike Bastardhead).

Okay. I should have done some more research before making that comment, then. It appears that only the cassette version has those rehearsal tracks, which is an odd way to do things for a 2013 release, but not altogether suprising I suppose, as Rami himself often posts pictures of listening to (copied) cassettes from Terrorizer, Napalm Death, and Testament on the official Convulse facebook page.

@DrummingEdge133: Damnit man, between you and Necroticism my dignity will end up in a coma

Frog's new reviews are pretty damn awesome, I gave 8 pts to his Panopticon, good read. If he was more regular, he could be a top dog.

Great Sargeist review, Frog. Brilliantly written, beautiful prose and mericulous analysis. Though Disciples isn't my favourite from Sargeist, that review made me want to listen to it more.

^ Aw shucks, thanks guys! :]

Yeah, I definitely want to become much more regular in my reviews, and perhaps fulfill some review requests (because I never really understood voluntarily writing negative reviews for stuff....although..a few things may be poked..) while I'm at it. I decided that it is a great way to stay a sharp writer.

But, yeah, I really like Disciple and the memories with that album are just too much, so I definitely think that's why it's my favorite. But, either way, Sargeist is really damn cool.

Glad you guys liked them! Thank you for the 8 Tony!

I won't say I don't like these reviews you've written, Frog, because that isn't true, but let's say they're not what I look for in a review on this site. Take for instance the Panopticon review. I know exactly how the album made you feel, but most of it isn't really necessary, particularly the overblown stuff like this. In fact, it detracts and you go into talking you.


Ugh, what the hell is this?

Nonetheless, I enjoy reading them overall, so don't take it the wrong way.

That would "sound" much better written in a first person stance, instead of doing it in the third person. But who am I to criticize...

The new Unspoken King review reeks of apologism.

He hasn't listened to None So Vile, he can't have.


Pure, unadulterated purple prose. I generally hate overblown writing in reviews, but Frog sets the mood for it just correctly. It's a writing style completely unimplementable in anything but deeply personal reviews.

Most definitely. Saying that TUK is just as intense as NSV is something I could almost accuse of being factually incorrect.

The part that blew me away was when he said the clean vocals were great. I can understand such a thing if you're a big fan of Mudvayne or something, but damn.

Bravo on your 'Wintersun' review, Bastard! That was easily the most entertaining review I've read in a while, and you basically expressed all the reasons why Wintersun aren't what they're cracked up to be. I don't hate them quite like you do, but I am ready for them to go away already. Anyway, great job!

I have heard None So Vile actually, and I'm gonna be reviewing that soon. TUK wasnt that bad at all.

Bastardhead, I may actually take you up on that track reordering and re-editing. I've definitely felt the same way about some albums: that they could have been vastly improved by dropping certain tracks or editing redundancies/boring parts in longer songs and making a sortof EP out of it. I mean, I kinda do that with the Wintersun s/t anyways nowadays; I listen to the first two songs, skip to Starchild, and then that's it.