Chaos Frame
Path to Exile
Nightmare Records
2015
Chaos Frame are an American quartet and a band that tries to combine a few too many influences in their sound and as a result the end up having quite a few changes from track to track consistency is not exactly their forte...
One would say that prog is their main influence with occasional splashes of power metal but not in a way that would make Symphony X for instance breathe a sweat. This is pompier and in places European influenced… but as I mentioned previously their overall style is quite hard to pin down. They could easily have harsh vocals on a track and then have clean ones but in a rather structured old school way without the whole groove ideology… they have also half a dozen guests from up and coming but rather unknown bands to help them out with additional vocals or the occasional bizarre and exotic instrument ie an alto sax soloing away in “Paper Sun”…
With only another album to their name while they seem to have enough musical chops they seem to get too easily excited and to go for chocking up the songs with ideas while keeping the length of songs consistently above five minutes, which doesn’t always work equally well...
Opener “Painful Lessons” is generally nice and has a nice bridge/pre-chorus and the occasional nice guest vocal but then also a couple of rather unfortunate guest lines in an attempt to build more “roles” into the song...
The title track is a lot harder hitting and faster and tries to be imposing, but falls a bit short again some interesting instrumental parts but by and large nothing too amazing happening in the verses etc...
“Decreto” is interesting with the band trying to mix prog with harsh vocals and a certain pomposity and then midway deciding to revert to their clean cut style. Interesting but it feels like 2 different compositions in one somehow pushed to work together... it’s not exactly organic but that’s not meant to be taken as an explicitly good or bad thing.
“Terra Firma” is nice with its acoustic intro licks but soon it goes in a sort of annoying power-prog mode with Dave Brown consistently sounding pushed to go really high without any real reason. I think I might have enjoyed the song had he been a bit more reserved…
“Paper Sun” is more like it but it seems to have some latic chant that doesn’t bode to well with the rest of the song as it seems to be sung by a different person. See, apart from hitting notes it’s also the whole expression and the way you sound while doing so (ie strained or really at ease and fully resonant) the sax is however a nice touch and doesn’t feel like something that was just put there for the sake of just existing… nice enough chorus.
“Giant Killer” is deeper and more intricate, story driven… with clear prog undertones...
“Doomed” opens up rather slowly and I thought… “hmm” it’s far from doomy but it is more pompous and “phatter” and has a doomy section but just seems to be a somewhat heavier alternative version of the bands usual style with everything else seemingly unchanged... I was thinking that the overall added “thickness” really suits them and compliments the voice of Brown in a better way.
“The World Had Two Faces” is an almost 8 minute epic-prog number with some strong melodies but overall not matching staying power as it doesn’t seem able to sound focused enough.
The band has upped the ante since their debut considerably but there’s still room for improvement. More focus and less duration might help them and trusting their own singer, who should not feel like he has to antagonize an entire orchestra of instruments, would be some nice ideas but I’m guessing they could just evolve naturally… over time or more drastically…
One would say that prog is their main influence with occasional splashes of power metal but not in a way that would make Symphony X for instance breathe a sweat. This is pompier and in places European influenced… but as I mentioned previously their overall style is quite hard to pin down. They could easily have harsh vocals on a track and then have clean ones but in a rather structured old school way without the whole groove ideology… they have also half a dozen guests from up and coming but rather unknown bands to help them out with additional vocals or the occasional bizarre and exotic instrument ie an alto sax soloing away in “Paper Sun”…
With only another album to their name while they seem to have enough musical chops they seem to get too easily excited and to go for chocking up the songs with ideas while keeping the length of songs consistently above five minutes, which doesn’t always work equally well...
Opener “Painful Lessons” is generally nice and has a nice bridge/pre-chorus and the occasional nice guest vocal but then also a couple of rather unfortunate guest lines in an attempt to build more “roles” into the song...
The title track is a lot harder hitting and faster and tries to be imposing, but falls a bit short again some interesting instrumental parts but by and large nothing too amazing happening in the verses etc...
“Decreto” is interesting with the band trying to mix prog with harsh vocals and a certain pomposity and then midway deciding to revert to their clean cut style. Interesting but it feels like 2 different compositions in one somehow pushed to work together... it’s not exactly organic but that’s not meant to be taken as an explicitly good or bad thing.
“Terra Firma” is nice with its acoustic intro licks but soon it goes in a sort of annoying power-prog mode with Dave Brown consistently sounding pushed to go really high without any real reason. I think I might have enjoyed the song had he been a bit more reserved…
“Paper Sun” is more like it but it seems to have some latic chant that doesn’t bode to well with the rest of the song as it seems to be sung by a different person. See, apart from hitting notes it’s also the whole expression and the way you sound while doing so (ie strained or really at ease and fully resonant) the sax is however a nice touch and doesn’t feel like something that was just put there for the sake of just existing… nice enough chorus.
“Giant Killer” is deeper and more intricate, story driven… with clear prog undertones...
“Doomed” opens up rather slowly and I thought… “hmm” it’s far from doomy but it is more pompous and “phatter” and has a doomy section but just seems to be a somewhat heavier alternative version of the bands usual style with everything else seemingly unchanged... I was thinking that the overall added “thickness” really suits them and compliments the voice of Brown in a better way.
“The World Had Two Faces” is an almost 8 minute epic-prog number with some strong melodies but overall not matching staying power as it doesn’t seem able to sound focused enough.
The band has upped the ante since their debut considerably but there’s still room for improvement. More focus and less duration might help them and trusting their own singer, who should not feel like he has to antagonize an entire orchestra of instruments, would be some nice ideas but I’m guessing they could just evolve naturally… over time or more drastically…