Fear the Invisible

Fear the Invisible is the debut album of a Russian band Ordo ad Chao. The music on it is maintained in the styles of black and death metal. After reading these sentences, you may have thought “Yeah, probably something like Behemoth”. No, it’s not. In fact, black/death metal is just the most fitting term, but this creation is actually a bit hard to be characterized by genres. It stands out with its gentle aggression, technique of playing instruments, vocals and production and it’s also a grower of the year for me. I listened to it for the first time a few months ago and at first I thought that it’s not my cup of tea, but it already piqued my interest. In the time from the first listening to reviewing, I noticed that I was coming back to this album many times and it kept growing on me. Because it has a very unique specificity and contains specific emotions, the love to it is a difficult love, but it’s definitely worth it.

The cruel riff along with the drums in the beginning of Pythonic Precipitation, already shows a part of the style that the listener is dealing with here. The music is really dark, heavy and extreme, but it’s also irritating the ears gently. Everything’s focused mostly on the atmosphere and the main part of all the songs is the guitar work, that shines very bright. In the opening song, but also in the others, not only the riffs are written creatively and mystically, but there are also hypnotizing solos. The two genres are cleverly combined, that the listener can hear both almost all the time. But, most of the riffs, the production and the vocals aren’t typical to death metal in the current form of it very much. The Black Colonel’s (known from Blackdeath) voice is most often more screeching than guttural or deep, and for me, it’s definitely a good thing. In general, the vocals are one of the best things about Fear the Invisible. They convey a lot of emotions.

At first, I didn’t expect any catchiness from this album, but I experienced it. It’s especially in the second song Eternal Sacrifice (The Paradoxes of Creation). Its riff is really memorable, leads the composition majestically and strikes in a multi-layered manner. The reason of both the uniqueness and the difficulty in reception of this material is the production. The name of the band brings to mind Mayhem’s 2007 album. There are some similarities between these two, and the production is definitely one of them. It’s something that I call “modern necrosound”. But as Mayhem decided to treat their record in a very dingy way, the sound of Fear the Invisible can be described as “muffled and clean at the same time”. It’s not very hard to realize that it’s a new recording, but it’s also far from being overproduced in any sense. It stands out in this case from many of the extreme metal records I’ve listened to this year.

This material works best as a companion of the lonely, cold and dark nights. It contains a lot of madness and thus is purifying. Probably the most mad part of it is the song Rites of the Sick. Against the Cosmic Purpose. It’s also the most progressive and multi-layered one. “I don't care about the intentions of the Universe / My Sickness is my Rite” – Colonel once again delivers intriguing lyrics in his specific style. The album is divided into complex moments and more catchy ones. Examples of the second group can be found in Reminiscence: The Throne of Black Ice. Despite the fact that the song starts suddenly after a smooth completion of the previous one, which I find ill-considered, it definitely grabs attention and it’s based on really interesting riffs. One of the most awesome things in this album are the maniacally played tirades, which always strike after “preparations” in the form of the calmer moments.

The record is ended with a “we have just begun” feeling in the song Evening Prayer. I would say that it’s a bit boring and too monotonous in the last part, but it was placed as the last one rightly. Fear the Invisible is a very complicated, long growing on you, intriguing piece of black/death metal. It evokes very specific, at the same time pleasant and painful emotions. It’s maintained in an outstanding atmosphere, mostly thanks to the production, the songwriting and the vocals. It’s a very specific journey, definitely worth taking part in it, that should be appreciated by many connoisseurs of dark underground metal.

Originally written for Tony Blackthrasher on Instagram and Facebook and The Metal Observer.