| Reviews for Chordewa's Coma Horizon |
| Refreshing and novel, but spoiled by hand-damping - 77% |
| Written by BM_DM
on December 17th, 2007
|
| Chordewa cram a lot into this EP. You can expect to hear both standard-issue and treated black metal vocals (even a little screaming in 'Vacuum'), clean operatic soprano vocals, strings, piano, '70s analogue Mellotron / Moog synth lines, a little soloing, the dreaded hand-damping, and some complex arrangements and time signatures. Everything has its place, however, and you won't find offensive 'muso noodling' in the self-indulgent vein of early Ephel Duath or Ne Obliviscaris on this release, but I am afraid that hand-damping and the odd pinched harmonic are encountered rather more than traditional fast strumming. If this makes your hackles rise, then you'd best steer clear of Chordewa. Whilst the band is appropriately tagged as 'progressive black metal', there is nevertheless enough grit and grist at the heart of this release to make it attractive to an orthodox black metal audience -- probably. I must confess that the hand-damping did make me a little scratchy, and I would have undoubtedly enjoyed the release a lot more if it were absent, but this five track EP does not outstay its welcome. Standout track: Future Cult |