Procession to the Infraworld

This. This is the inevitable conclusion to the sound The Chasm had gradually been developing over their first three albums. Procession to the Infraworld is a much more refined collection of music than anything they'd put out at this point, but it still has a primitive edge that makes it an absolutely fantastic repeat listen.

Here, Daniel Corchado fully embraces the power of the riff... a mysterious, undefined concept that can only be mastered by those whose hearts are truly invested in the music. Of course, powerful riffs have been used by every loud band from Led Zeppelin to Death and beyond; but The Chasm's signature riffing style, which had made brief early appearances on their second and third albums, is truly something special. Twisted, dark, and inexplicably malicious in their presentation, these unbelievable riffs pack every second of the record's duration.

The songwriting on Procession to the Infraworld is top-notch. Even when a riff isn't centered around a distinct melody (which it often is; hear "Cosmic Landscapes of Sorrow"), one is usually implied underneath. Nothing is too repetitive, and the song structures are unconventional enough that it can be hard to predict what's coming next even after several times listening through the whole record. There are frequent tempo changes that would probably be jostling in any other context, but Corchado and company manage to pull it off flawlessly. One aspect that has particularly amazed me about Procession to the Infraworld and the two (three, depending on how you feel about Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm) albums that follow it is that there is not a single weak riff to be found on them at all. That's truly an amazing feat.

For the first time in The Chasm's eight-year career, it's unavoidably apparent how gifted all the members truly are at their instruments. The guitarists navigate tremolo picking patterns, string-skipping riffs, and ominous arpeggios with laser precision. Drummer Antonio León alternates cleanly between sporadic blast beats and intricate syncopated parts filled with mind-blowing fills. Corchado's vocals range from a rumbly bellow to the black metal-influenced shrieks common in The Chasm's previous works.

The mix and overall vibe of Procession to the Infraworld would suggest that it was a much earlier point in death metal's history; the gritty guitar tone and natural drum sound hearken back to Gorguts and Cryptopsy. The mix is imperfect from a modern standpoint, very retro for 2000; yet I can't imagine a way it could have been pulled off that could have possibly suited the music better. Yes, it's more raw than The Chasm's newer releases; that isn't a bad thing in this scenario.

The Chasm is one of the most criminally overlooked bands in all of extreme metal. Though some of their best albums may be pretty inaccessible to a first-time listener (I'll cover this in my next couple reviews), Procession to the Infraworld serves as a great entry point for anyone looking to get into the band's sound. Arcane and awe-inspiring, it perfectly encapsulates what makes The Chasm's music so enjoyable while remaining a very digestible release: With only eight tracks and a runtime of just over 40 minutes, it isn't overwhelming in the slightest; in fact, it's mostly just a really fun album. I had this album in heavy rotation (at least once a day) for a couple months; and now that I've moved past that and had time to better reflect on why I love the record so much, I still try to return to the Infraworld at least once or twice a week. It's just that good.

Favorite songs: "The Scars of My Journey," "At the Edge of the Nebula Mortis," "Return of the Banished," "Cosmic Landscapes of Sorrow," and "Architects of Melancholic Apocalypse"

(Review originally appeared in Gnosis Webzine in 2001)

Every so often, a band comes a long that either defies preconceptions and completely re-define what metal can be, or they create metal so intense and so pure that it completely renews my metal faith. If it wasn’t for bands such as Voivod, Coroner, Carcass, Gorguts, Sigh, and Dissection, just to name a few; I might have completely given up on metal and became a total Jazz/Prog/Fusion snob a long time ago. And now add The Chasm to that list, and just when I needed them the most.

The Chasm has the total fanaticism of true Heavy Metal Zealots. These guys are totally down for the cause, and it definitely shows in their music. Especially in the light of some of the more visible bands that care more about image, or spouting off about being “true metal’. Compared to The Chasm, these pretenders are just “boy bands” dressed in corpse-paint & black leather…

The Chasm haven’t claimed to “reinvent the steel” on their latest release, but they have created a truly great metal album. The music is passionate and powerful, and there is a deep understanding and reverence for metals’ illustrious past. The Chasm does not waste their time running in the ridiculous “More Extreme and Brutal than thou” rat race. (Not to say these guys can’t cave in a skull when need be…) Instead, they focus their energies on songcraft and atmosphere, honing their metal to perfection.

At the risk of sounding pretentious, I would say Procession Of The Infraworld is the album that Morbid Angel should have made. On Gateways to Annihilation, MA was going for this larger than life, “cthulu rising from the bottomless pit” vibe, and in some ways they succeeded. But in the process, they lost a lot of the frantic and chaotic energy that makes Morbid Angel special. Well, The Chasm beat Morbid Angel at their own game this time. Procession Of The Infraworld is malevolent and incomprehensible in proportion, the musical equivalent of an ancient and alien evil that has been disturbed after several thousand eons of slumber…

The first thing that truly blew me away on Procession Of The Infraworld was the unbelievable production. It is so immediate and in your face, you feel like you have your head right in the drummer’s kick drum. And speaking of the drums on this album, they are just spectacular. This guy is just constantly hitting something, keeping such a frenzied pace, but at the same time, you can tell there is not one time anywhere on this album where he isn’t in total control of his kit. Just fucking spectacular!

A major ingredient in The Chasm’s sound is oldschool euro-death metal, al la Dissection. Not to say that The Chasm are Dissection Clones. But they do use the same vocabulary: Arpeggios and exotic chords, along with intricate but fluid riffs. In fact, The Chasm may be The Band to knock Dissection off their exalted pedestal as the kings of melodic, blackened death metal. (A few have came close, God Dethroned’s “Bloody Blasphemy“ for example…)

Now that I’ve had to think about it a bit, this was definitely my favorite album that came out in 2000, (With Nokturnal Mortum’s Nechrist right behind it…) and 2000 was a really good year for metal, in my opinion. I can’t wait to see how The Chasm tops “Procession” with their next album…

m/ Long Live THE NECROCULT!!! m/

Ah, and now for something completely different. I had been eagerly anticipating the release of this album for a long time, ever since I became a fan of Daniel Corchado's vocals and music with the release of Incantation's 'Diabolical Conquest', on which he did guest duties as a part of McEntee's ever-changing roster, and after later learning of his own band and hearing their utterly despair-ridden 'Deathcult' release. Meeting Daniel last year at the Milwaukee Metalfest, and seeing his band in action, I was more convinced than ever that this musical entity was a viable creative unit, filled with a unique integrity and an original spirit, and I am pleased to say that this long player does not disappoint my expectations in any way.

Beginning with the masterfully-constructed instrumental 'Spectral Sons of the Mictlan', which builds layers of raw and obscure riffing on top of each other, this album not only sets a new standard for Daniel's progression as a musician (along with the rest of his band) but also releases several new ideas for metal composition into the hungry ears of the underground. How? Above all by the fact that this band does not ever seem to follow the 'accepted' rules for composing songs, or constructing a band identity and personal sound. The melodic style of this album is very personal, obscure (in the sense that the melodies used don't have immediate correspondence with what you've heard before, and the songs are constructed in ways that at first seem to lack internal cohesion - this is a fallacy, however) and very much unique in the glutted and over-saturated death metal scene. The way that this band puts together riffs is completely original, as far as I can tell, and the only comparison I could make would be some of the early work of Abigor. Mixing almost every rhythmic technique in the metal guitar player's repertoire, the riffs often shapeshift and change within their own skins; twisting, turning, spinning off variations on their own melodic logic, morphing into alternate versions of themselves, and evoking the stylistics of death, doom, and atmospheric black metal all within the same passage. In addition to this the band takes full advantage of their two guitars and combines layers and strata of melody from the left and right side to form brilliantly despondent constructions of sound. In equal measure vicious, gloomy, menacing, mystifying, and rousing, the guitar work on these songs is first rate and thoroughly innovative. I applaud the determination, conviction, and energy that The Chasm display in their music... it's very inspiring.

Added to this, of course, are the mythological themes that form this band's source of creativity; both the mythology and culture of their native Mexico and the mythic structure behind the music that Daniel has built up over the years. Drawing from a deep well of personal conviction and a far-reaching imagination, the messages behind the melodies are as important as the music itself.

A word or two about the notion of obscurity that always surrounds this band: if the ethic and motivation of the Modernist movement was to truly create a new art, one that broke ties with the heritage of creative expression, and sought to give birth to a new artistic process that was simultaneously intensely personal, introspective, self-referential, and solipsistic in intent, The Chasm must be one of the most modern musical groups playing today. If you take a song like 'Cosmic Landscapes of Sorrow', for example, the sixth cut on this album, you will be faced with a daunting task in analyzing it: while it's stylistics pay obvious homage to other metal bands and the heritage of death metal, the messages behind the melodies used always seem to elude a complete understanding: they slip by the emotions, play havoc with reason, and squirm out of the grasp of your ability to accurately determine their origin or 'meaning' - in other words they are obscure, but not in the sense that they don't carry a weight of meaning with them - rather their emotional expression is so personal, from the standpoint of Corchado, that they always seem to just miss (by a hair) creating a resonating effect within you. After a few songs filled with these kinds of melodies, a sense of foreboding fills you: an effect and atmosphere of sterility, decay, untransmittable desires; a communication breakdown, the despair born of the unbreachable walls between all humans, the unbridgeable gap (a chasm, you could say) between all souls. If The Chasm have any one message, I believe, it is this: that the power to communicate, to feel yourself adequately understood by others, is just an illusion... a never ending series of confused attempts at connecting, which inevitably fail because of the very nature of our hearts and minds. The only answer to this tragic dilemma, this band seems to echo, is to seek all meaning within the self, to sink ever deeper within the darkness of the personal world, the unconscious, the well of the soul.

This is an essential release, by one of the most important bands in the genre. If you are in any way an initiate of the deeper currents of this art form, you owe it to yourself to find this.

Erebus Magazine
http://erebuszine.blogspot.com

As well as creating a wall of impenetrable, aural devastation, their music on "Procession to the Infraworld" (and as always) sears with a burning passion. This is a band that truly loves pouring all their energy into their music, they play with their hearts first and their excellent musicianship and talents later. Experiencing the essence of "The Chasm" is something different all together. You could literally start anywhere in their discography and feel the captivating sound of their other worldly music.

On this album they have new lead guitarist Julio Viterbo and he is excellent, now working in tandem with main man Daniel Corchado, the results are splendid. It's difficult to describe their method of songwriting, they don't do typical choruses and verses, It's more like a depiction of some sort of hectic journey leaving you not quite knowing what's around the next corner. In fact, understanding the lyrics is not an easy task and it's all part of the reason this music is so bizarre and captivating. Each time I read these sorrowful, narratives while listening to a song I feel as though I am one step closer to understanding what the fuck the message is. Don't expect to have a damn clue what you are reading and hearing at first, but when you come back to it the next few times you can definitely sense a deep, brooding explanation drawing closer.

Their melodic sound is not exactly accessible but it's surely what creates a lot of the atmosphere, best example of this is "At the Edge of Nebula Mortis" with it's very dissonant and repetitive melody which slowly but surely transports you to another realm. Although their songwriting methods are not traditional, they still follow certain patterns and do eventually come back to the same rhythms and melodies, unbelievable tracks like "Cosmic Landscapes of Sorrow" and "Return of the Banished" are examples of how they do this amazingly.

To get the most out of this album and The Chasm's music in general it does require your full attention, because the music is constantly taking new paths, patterns and tempos. The last track "Storm of Revelations" is superb, It starts with gentle, sorrowful melodic guitars that unexpectedly and to your delight, burst out in to a riff that smashes through a thousand brick walls with ease, but you only hear it at the beginning and end of the song. The drummer is no slouch either and certainly provides his share of fills, blast beats and double bass pounding, not overdone at all either, very nice. The bass guitar is not extremely audible for the most part, but some times it shines through and is quite nice on "Cosmic Landscapes of Sorrow". Also, Daniel is one of the best death metal vocalists, his roars are loud, passionate and intimidating, his vocals started to become more consistent from this album and onwards, more death metal vocals with a shrill to them. On the previous albums there were more anguish filled cries and changes in tone.

I'll state the obvious, every song is brilliant on "Procession to the Infraworld" and this band is overlooked. It's also quite considerably smaller in length than any of their other albums, not to say it's small, it's still a reasonable length at just over forty minutes. You really should not skip this band, if you like unique, eerie and punishing metal of pure death that conjures true spirit then descend into The Chasm, that is all.

This is where they got good. The Chasm are one of the best Death Metal bands the world has ever seen, combining an exquisite ear for melody with a sonic assault like none you've ever seen. Procession to the Infraworld was their breakthrough album, where they threw away the piddling and meandering Doom influence they had been slowly shedding with their past releases and decided that the best course of action was to start writing albums that simply fucking demolished everything in their path like a giant wrecking ball.

And the strangest thing is - this is not in any way just brutality and speed. The Chasm display a maturity in their songwriting that many other Death Metal bands at the time could not even dream of. People will say this is a step down from Deathcult in terms of songwriting, but really all The Chasm did was strip the music of the unnecessary components like the strange acoustic guitars. All of the strange, occult atmosphere is still intact here, just delivered in a more subtle and restrained manner, as to make way for a more guitar-centric style of music. The riffs here are seriously awesome; twisted and demented pieces of molten Metal that wrap themselves like thorny wreaths around the dark, moody melodies to create a vital, powerful sound that will never get old. The songs are fluid, changing tempos often, yet never sounding contrived or disconnected like they did on the last album.

Everything on Procession is calculated meticulously, and yet it still retains the gritty, brutal Death Metal aesthetic that the genre was founded upon. The opening riff of "Spectral Sons of the Mictlan" will captivate immediately and have you headbanging, and the rest of the album does not disappoint. The band sounds infused with a new energy and power, and they exercise it well with a chunky, metallic guitar tone and bushels of heavy, galloping riffs. "The Scars of My Journey," the doomy, erudite "At the Edge of the Nebula Mortis," the sprawling, melodic "Cosmic Landscapes of Sorrow," "Architects of Melancholic Apocalypse," with its fast, trilling melodies and bombastic nature, and of course the epic closer "Storm of Revelations"...all killer tracks, and even the ones I didn't name are still fantastic.

This is The Chasm's most accessible and shortest album, so if you need a place to jump right into the interminable void of their spectacular discography, this is probably the best place to start, although The Spell of Retribution might be a good choice too. Procession to the Infraworld is just a classic Death Metal album with no frills or gimmicks, using strong songwriting and great musicianship to hit you harder than a bag of fucking bricks. Get this one if you have any taste at all.

If I could give any album higher than a 100, this would surely be it. From the churning, epic overture of 'Spectral Sons of the Mictlan/Scars of My Journey' to the chaotic crescendo of 'Storm of Revelations,' this record is perhaps the greatest accomplishment that rests upon the shoulders of The Chasm, if not death metal as a whole.

Of the songwriting present on the record, the word 'otherworldly' comes to mind. The band have managed to create a near perfect mixture of death, doom and black metal genres, plucking the essentials from each style and mixing them to great effect. The result is chaotic, atmospheric and highly melodic metal of death which does a fine job of sucking the listener in and crushing them under the vastness of space itself.

The dual guitars buzz harmoniously, painting landscapes of carnage and apocalypse, aided by a pounding and technically impressive percussive assault. The vocals on the album are scarce, but when present bring a new sense of chaos to the fore, accenting particularly intense sections of songs.

The production of the record drenches the guitars in the buzz-saw tone reminiscent of Dismember and other Swedish death metal acts, but also slightly overpowers the drums. I didn't bother docking points for this, as it never detracts from the overall experience of the album, and while the bass is largely unnoticeable under the layers of guitars and drumwork, there are a few moments where it shines through, but I have noticed this to be the case with almost every death metal band I have experienced.

Perhaps the singular opus of the album would have to be the epic 'At the Edge of the Nebula Mortis,' but the album as a whole is the true masterpiece here. Highly recommended.

Comparing this album to the one that came before it would be very unfair. Deathcult is one of the greatest albums ever recorded. I'm personally glad that The Chasm didn't release Deathcult part 2 here. I'm glad they went in a slightly different direction. It adds another sound, another personality to the band. But I can also see how some fans were let down and turned away by Procession to the Infraworld. After Deathcult every Chasm fan was expecting another death metal milestone, another reinvention of the genre. The bar was set so high and to many fans this album didn't reach it. I enjoy this album from start to finish. Is it as a whole better than Deathcult? No, not even close actually. But is it better than every other death metal album that was released in 1999? Yes (even better than Necrophagist - Onset of Putrefaction). Not comparing it to what came before or after, Procession to the Infraworld is a really great Chasm album.

This is the first Chasm album with Julio Viterbo on guitar and the first recorded while living in the States. A slightly different guitar style is here. The riffs are still melodic, only a different type of melodic than Deathcult. Kind of hard to put into words really. Daniel's voice still sounds amazing. The solos are also kind of different, still melodic but a bit less emotional and sorrowful sounding and some actually shred a bit.

Spectral Sons of the Mictlan is the first track and is an instrumental, and as I said in an earlier review The Chasm write the best instrumentals. At the Edge of the Nebula Mortis is a nice song with melodic riffing and a nice solo in there. Fading is the shortest Chasm song at just over 2 minutes. Not a bad song, but it does seem a bit out of place. Return of the Banished is one of the highlights of the album and has some nice solos and great riffs. Architects of Melancholic Apocalypse is the best song on Procession to the Infraworld with my favorite solo on the album at the 4 minute mark. Daniel's voice also sounds best on this song. Storms of Revelations ends the album with more great riffing and shredding.

This 4th album by The Chasm is quite different from the first three. The riffing is more aggressive, the solos are more shredding, the vocals are more high-pitched. If you go into this album expecting Deathcult part 2 you will be disappointed. If you go into this album just wanting to hear awesome death metal then you will be pleased. This is The Chasm's most underrated album. Highly recommended.

"The Dominant Symbol of the Supremacy, Which Flows and Invades our Furious Souls and Emanates from my Conquering Visions, Feeds the Ironwill of my Essence..."