The Chapter – Into The Abyss
Floyd Records –2007
By Dan Fisher
The Chapter are a band that need to be recognised as being something of a diamond in the rough of underground dirge. Their sound is a mixture of modern doom with elements of death and progressive metal.
Into the Abyss is a dense, atmospheric project that commands the attention of the listener despite it's shortcomings. As I listened to the four tracks on show here, I was moved by the mournful Solitude Aeturnus-esque riffing, coupled with growling that really suited the poetic nature of the lyrics. Darkly romantic couplets such as
'I am who you are, we are ourself shadows; we are made forever. I am your black rainbow', though not the best english, show a band that can be brutal and fragile at the same time. I liked the band's willingness to experiment and the tempo and time changes seemed to enhance the chasmic nature of their sound. With a bit more polish and some changes,
The Chapter could be really good.
If they were to succeed though, they drummer would need to go back to school because he is not good enough to keep up with the changes in some of these songs. His fills are awful and he goes out of time in every song on the album. Also, while the death vocals are excellent, the 'singing' sounds like my sister whining to my mum that her favourite jeans aren't clean. Get some lessons! Song structure is generally very good, but I would suggest that you don't start each song with the same arpeggioed guitar riff because the listener will get bored and do something stupid like download some albums by
KISS.
Overall though, as demo-cum-releases go, I think this band have alot of potential. The cd I had was dated 2006 so go check them out in 2007 and see if they've evolved since falling
Into The Abyss. ahem. sorry.
Official The Chapter Website
Official Floyd Records Website
