Chapter Chaos Begins

Canada's Anonymus seemed to have fed their musical interests on a steady diet of early 90's San Francisco Bay thrash with SLAYER and TESTAMENT being the meat and potatoes, and KATAKLYSM consumed as a side dish. "Chapter Chaos Begins" is a demonstration on how to fuse the best metal from the early 1990s and the various styles birthed during that period.

The title track and album opener starts in a similar fashion to Nevermore's "The Seven Tongues of God" with the band striking a couple notes, letting those notes ring out, and then doing it again, like a drag racer revving up his engine before a race. What comes next seems pulled out of nowhere. The trio comes at you full force, blasting away on the drums and picking with a furious abandon. These moments of brutal grind seem as if the group is trying to emulate fellow Canadians, Kataklysm. As they bust out the raging speed so early into the album, listeners may believe this is another Canadian grind band, only in part. The next section consists of raging Thrash, sang with abrasive, Robert Flynn-style vocals. Double bass and guitar harmonies support the group's clean choral arraignment further into the song.

The next track "I am Addicted" is my favorite. This track moves with a thrashing rhythm recalling Testament's "Trial by Fire". Anonymus' vocals are every bit as diverse as the music. "I am Addicted" is a perfect example of their legion of voices. The album's liner notes credits all three members as vocalists, so that may answer how they pull this off. "I am Addicted" sounds like Tom Araya from Slayer and Chuck Billy from Testament alternating their vocals from verse to verse. "Fonce Ou Creve" unveils a style I have never heard before, French Canadian Hardcore. Hard core vocals with a Brooklyn, New York accent are commonplace, but with a French accent? This is a new one to me, but it works.

"Chapter Chaos Begins" is a fun album. Listeners could make a game out of what style Anonymus is going to pull out next, what singer do they sound like or where from where do you think they borrowed inspiration for a riff? The multi personalities they bring to each song are only part of what makes this album such a great listen. The catchiness and expert production (Jean-Francois Dagenais of Kataklysm fame) are other notable attributes. Anonymus are without a doubt in the upper echelon of modern Thrash.

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