Chamber of Suicide

I was a little worried about this one when I picked it up. Between the band name, album title and cover art, I thought my hard-earned $3.95 might've paid for some DSBM bullshit. With a sigh of relief, I can say this is not the case.

The album does start out on a bit of an awkward foot with "Hole of Need", an interestingly-titled but half-baked track that clearly derives its style from the then-contemporary sound of early-aughts Euro black metal but punctuates it with needless spoken word breaks and high-pitched, plinky little melodies played on the worst-sounding clean guitar I've ever heard. Fortunately, the sour taste that this track leaves is mitigated immediately when the second song begins. That song, "Chaos or Death" is a brilliant track that wears its influences on its sleeve ("Funeral Fog" in the guitars, "Natassja in Eternal Sleep" in the drums) but comes across as homage rather than imitation.

This is, for my money, never a bad thing in black metal. I daresay it's the only genre in which I'd prefer to hear a band capably carry the torch of the old masters rather than fumble around in the darkness for a shot at something novel, if only because so few attempts at novelty are successful. Shroud themselves take a stab at it in "Wolf of a New Age", which tries to liven up the atmosphere with a few poorly-placed (and sloppily-performed) At the Gates-core riffs, then throws in a solo consisting primarily of that lick that every amateur guitarist uses to learn two-handed tapping. Mercifully, the band has enough sense to bring the original atmosphere back for the remainder of the track; at very least, the weaker parts are sequestered off into the middle two minutes.

The rest of the album sits closer to "Chaos or Death" in style, which is the best thing it could have done. The guitar solo in "Reach Down the Grievance", while a little choppy and oddly short, is much more in line with the style of the song it's in, the vocals seem to show more variety on the back half of the album, and the short guitar instrumental that closes the disc makes reference to Spanish classical guitar stylings without losing its identity.

Chamber of Suicide is, altogether, a more-than-worthwhile listen - problems, when they crop up, are usually gone soon, and whatever replaces them is invariably more than enough to make up for it. As is often the case with one-and-done type bands, I'm left wishing for a few more tracks or even a second album to see what Shroud could've done with more than 25 minutes of total runtime, but if this is all they've got to show for their efforts I'm still impressed.

There are many aspects of this band that led me to believe it was yet another 'underground unknown Darkthrone clone' I would soon be forgetting. I was very wrong in every respect. This is perhaps one of the best black metal bands few people have heard of. Vision, power, depth, emotion, sound, and style are all dripping off this strange album that defies easy characterization; the hallmark of any truly good work of art.

To begin with, the guitars here provide grating scars of distorted tone along a wall of standard black metal noise. Structurally and stylistically, the overall approach is solidly based in Darkthrone, sometimes sounding like an album that was never released from their golden age. However, every song on this album contains bizarre and minimal but epic twists and turns of mutated folk melody that take this album’s sound to those corners of the realm of black metal where bands like Kvist and Taake are known to trail blaze. Riffs here at times bear strong resemblance to Kvist, as repeated simple structures give way to unexpected shifts in direction and key, at times moving off and on the beat at seeming random. This style of controlled chaos is a definite plus to the guitarwork, giving it a feel of unexpectedness in such a copied and tired idiom. There are moments of clean guitar work that demonstrate the ability of the guitarist, and a few brazen passages where the noisy chords and microtonal melodies give way to a grand passage of bombast, without beating the listener over the head with emotive musical expressions.

Bass is actually given work as a separate instrument; moving in and out of the chord structure the guitars set up with organic and alien intent, adding significant breadth and depth to the harmonic quality of the songs. While the album’s bass generally retains the classic ‘tinny’ sound of older Norwegian black metal, there is enough bottom end in the thinly produced bass to give it some character and to divide it from the guitars. There is no technical mastery demonstrated on this instrument, but a lack is not noticeable, either.

Drumming here is minimalist, keeping in line with other more predictable Darkthone clone bands, as long sections of flowing melody are supported by mid-paced blasts and rolls that never seem to draw attention to themselves. There are a few unique rhythm patterns sparsely appearing with more traditional chord-driven riffs, but for the most part the drummer is never the star musician of this body of work.

What makes this album amazing is its usual and intriguing sense of …immaturity for lack of a better word. The cover art looks like it was drawn by someone in the 9th grade, and the musicians display no flashy technicality of any sort, as if the playing of their layered riffs correctly was challenge enough. While ‘immaturity’ connotates negative images, in this sense it works amazingly well to elevate this from being an excellent album played by decent musicians to being an amazing album. There is a distinct emotional feeling to this album that calls to mind feelings of hate, pain, and confusion one remembers from junior high and high school days. This is a far more apt soundtrack for the shooting at Columbine than some crappy pop-industrial drivel. The overall sound of this album brings out all the conflicting emotions about growing up different, from the wonder of discovering friends and music you actually enjoy to the overwhelming misery of realizing the world really is controlled by idiot sheep, and no matter how hard you fight, they always seem to win by sheer force of numbers. All these emotions and more pour through this release of cold and grim black metal, and grab the listener while screaming for attention.

Vocals on this track, given all the emotion mentioned above, are not that spectacular. It is the intangible combination of elements that create the feelings this album gives the listener. There is also an interesting progression to this album, as the first song starts out shaky and off-kilter, with many stops and starts and discernable changes in tempo and style. By the last few songs, there is a definite arc of sound and style being followed, as riffs and even songs flow more and more effortlessly together. Finally, the last track of the album jars the listener with a haunting clean guitar track that seems paradoxically elongated and short. It reminds me of the amazing last track on Taake’s first album, only without the rain samples. It is strange and hateful but also calm and beautiful…the very apotheosis of black metal.

This album is a gem far too few people have discovered. This is highly recommended for fans of harmonically advanced yet raw black metal in the best traditions of Darkthrone and Burzum.