Reviews: SODP033

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Ever since the beginning of Black Metal, bands have continued to incorporate other musical elements into this extreme sub-genre of metal. The push for a more progressive Black Metal sound is very common these days amongst the new bands.
Italy’s one man band, Chiral, sets out with a debut EP titled, “Abisso,” hoping to capture the imaginations of a more opened minded Black Metal audience. The band’s sound still maintains traditional Black Metal qualities, but the deviations from the traditional formula really standout. One example, is that the band composes vibrant sounding classical acoustic guitar arrangements. These short moments of classical guitar soloing are a unique way to transition away from the extreme Black Metal. I was impressed by the overall arrangements, but sometimes when you are listening to extreme music, you really don’t expect the music to suddenly change from fast and aggressive, to soothing and melodic rather quickly.
This album is written in a style that is very intricate, where the songs all fit together, but at the same time do not take on one common musical theme. The introduction “Atto I: Disceso Nel Buio,” is a slow ominous keyboard and guitar arrangement that builds up a strong ambient Black Metal foundation. The vocal style at first takes on a more low sounding death metal growl, but fades to make way for the instantly recognizable Black Metal vocal style. He sounds a bit like Abbath from Immortal, but with a vocal higher pitch. “Atto I: Oblio,” is an introduction to Chiral’s progressive Black Metal style. The song really took me by surprise once the intense riff faded and made way for an acoustic piece.
The main focus of this album happens to be the third composition, “Atto II: Abisso.” This long piece of extreme music takes many musical turns and features a high level of complex musicianship. The guitar playing is simply amazing because he can create such grim frost bitten sounding riffs and then use his fingers to make technical acoustic solos. About half way through the song, this colossal dark atmosphere begins to take form. The sound is very climatic and slowly fades to a mellow acoustic guitar riff.
From start to finish, Chiral’s, “Abisso,” will not lead you into a world of repetition and predictably. This is a form of music that hopes to change people’s perception of what Black Metal is by throwing in some unique elements. The programming and production, for one guy, is really good. I think my only complaint is that I felt like he could have pushed for even larger sounding musical atmospheres, but his approach works well with the sound he was going for on this EP. If you enjoy progressive Black Metal, extreme music that does not follow a repetitive blue-print, you will enjoy this album. Intense horribly distorted sounding riffs can get old after a while, so an acoustic riff might offer a pleasant deviation.

http://rockandmetaltemple.blogspot.ru/2014/07/chiral-abisso.html

 

When I am not working or lazing around, my favourite thing to do is go fell walking in the Lake District. The Lakeland Fells are equally suited to vast power metal epicness and grim, windswept black metal. I take a lot of photos, and most look like they should be some kind of black metal album cover, except in colour. The reason for my digression into hobbies is ‘Abisso’, the debut offering from Italy’s Chiral. I first became aware of them through Sixsixsix Music’s excellent Helvete compilation, and if there was one band from that who truly suited the vast, cold beauty of the Lake District, it is them.

Opening with some rolling thunder to set the mood, ‘Atto I: Disceso Nel Buio’ leads with grandiose strings and a rising, mesmerising riff. Decidedly measured, weaving a more subtle melancholy than bands who go instantly for the jugular, it eventually settles into a mournful tremolo riff and a menacing rumble of double bass. Essentially an intro, but laying out a clear blueprint for what lays ahead, disrupting expectations from the get go.

‘Atto I: Oblio’ is more conventional, blasting ferociously with a raw, icy riff and throat shredding vocals. It then drops into acoustic guitar and the difference is shocking. Gone is the violence, the blackness, the hatred, to be replaced with lush acoustics that bring to mind Opeth’s softer moments. It accentuates the fury with which Chiral approach their black metal side. ‘Atto II: Abisso’ I reviewed in my Helvete review, but it deserves another mention here, as it is a true centrepiece. A majestic enmeshing of delicate acoustic moments with all out darkness that captures what it means to be a black metal band in this day and age. Not afraid to experiment while also staying true to the tenets that spawned all this in the first place.

Finishing with the introspective ‘Atto II: In Assenza’, Chiral have crafted an excellent release here that any black metal fan worth their studs should check out. Equal parts raw darkness and mournful beauty, ‘Abisso’ is, simply put, stunning.

https://thoseonceloyal.wordpress.com/2014/09/11/review-chiral-abisso/

 

Finalmente arriva al debutto la one man band italiana Chiral. Dopo demo e split, si materializzano ben due full length in sequenza, iniziando da questo eclettico “Abisso”, un album molto vario, estremamente vario, nel quale convergono innumerevoli stili ed influenze che forgiano un black ultra personale e molto impattante. Un mix stilistico impressionante, concepito con intelligenza: sarebbe infatti facile cadere nel “collage” di varie cose, evidenziando una scarsa creatività, ma “Abisso” è veramente ben concepito ed i molteplici cambi stilistici sono indovinati, progressivi e molto curati. Apre “Atto I: Disceso nel Buio”: atmosferico, molto atmosferico, lento e crudele. Un brano che sembra appartenere ai Lustre in versione più oscura e decadente. “Atto I: Oblio” spinge al massimo l’integrazione stilistica: veloce e violento prima, con assoli quasi speed metal. Armonico, ricco di arpeggi poi. Ed infine nuovamente veloce, quasi lontano dal black, con un assolo fulmineo e linee di basso intensissime. L’imponente lunghezza di “Atto II: Abisso” offre ulteriori spazi per le divagazioni; un pezzo ricco di groove, aperto da imponenti arpeggi che sfociano in un crescendo verso violenza e velocità, andando verso un qualcosa di trionfale e remotamente rituale. L’impostazione Lustre torna con l’imponente “Atto finale: Di Notte, Cielo e Solitudine”, un pezzo di oltre tredici minuti, dove riff lenti, tastiere decadenti, drumming cadenzato e vocals strazianti danno vita ad un concetto atmosferico, deviato verso il depressive, assolutamente irresistibile. Quasi una bonus track la conclusiva “Death’s Dominion”, completamente fuori tema, ma molto accattivante: un tributo di Chiral al black svedese dei primi anni ’90, riassunto con un pezzo tirato, violento, brutale ma anche molto melodico. Un disco magnetico, difficile da classificare ma decisamente non trascurabile: le varianti sono sempre improvvise, inaspettate, quasi prepotenti… ma dopo ogni cambio -con il proseguire dell’ascolto- ci si rende conto che quella era la direzione giusta e che la canzone doveva per forza suonare in quella maniera. Sembra che ci siano progressioni nascoste nella musica, invisibili, sepolte in una abissale profondità. Chiral, con maestria, le porta alla luce, dando loro nuova vita.

http://www.metalhead.it/?p=55642

 

'A raw black metal journey through pain, death and solitude as seen by Chiral'. That's what the artist behind this one-man project mentions in the album booklet. However, I like to add a few words to that description. Words like 'progressive' or 'atmospheric' for instance, or 'intense', 'surprising' and 'refreshing'. Yes, this is a black metal album but I've rarely heard something as immersive and awe-inspiring as this one. This is Opeth meets Rodrigo & Gabriela meets Nortt.

Chiral hails from Italy and has been working on his distinct version of black metal since 2013. And black metal we get. Raw, primitive and intense blackened riffs, blast beats and hellish screams fill the air in nearly every song, except maybe in the opener 'Atto I: Disceso Nel Buio', which on its turn is simply a great depressive blackened doom song. That would probably make it my favorite track, me being a doom fan and all.

But there's much more to it that just bleak extreme music. Chiral is an excellent guitar player, even when he puts the electric version aside for a while and goes completely acoustic. These atmosphere folk passages are brilliant. They add a lot of credibility and originality to the whole, something that can always cound on my approval. On other occasions keyboards make up for the dreamy but dark passages, often introducing another stunning piece of musicial extremeties.

Finally, there's a lot of room for melody. Closer 'Atto Finale: Di Notte, Cielo E Solitudine' nudges back towards the whole depressive black metal scene, again much to my delight. Naturally, the song sounds haunted, fearsome and downright bleak but that's the brilliance of this whole album. 'Abisso' is well-balanced, well-played and highly versatile. So I really want to recommend this gem to any black metal fan out there because Chiral seems to have created one of the highlights in this year's blackened scene.

http://www.merchantsofair.com/reviews/chiral-abisso

 

As much as I like to discover new bands I like to discover bands from places that I haven’t had bands coming from before. But with the globalization that we too see in metal it is harder to discover a band from a country that you haven’t been familiarized with before. So then I just gotta concentrate on the music. This Italian kinda reminds me of Swedish Dawn in sound in an way that I thought they would not be. But I can’t say that I’m too surprised either. They are after all Italian. There is also a progressive side to it that kinda breaks off from the black metal assault they present. If you have a hard time with bands mixing styles then you might want to stay clear of this. For us that have no issues with progressive black metal, we’ll keep listening and enjoying it.

http://battlehelm.com/reviews/chiral-abisso/

 

Chiral is the name of a very young one-man band, but despite the very young age (the project began in early 2014), there were quite some releases in mean time (demos, singles and two splits). Amongst those, a demo called Abisso…

Earlier this year, Chiral signed to Black Plague Records in order to release the full length Nightsky, but in an unholy marriage with Metallic Media and Satanath’s sub-label Symbol Of Domination Productions (both of them do work together very intensively), Black Plague bring out the album Abisso, which consists of the original tracks from the demo, and a new one.

The journey starts with Atto I: Desceso Nel Buio, which opens with the ominous sound of wind and thunder. After half a minute, a floaty and melancholic keyboard line penetrates the stormy sphere, shortly after joined by a mostly funereal and depressive Funeral / Suicidal Black attitude: slow rhythms and riffs and desolate acoustics, and then a melancholic lead riff. After about three minutes, also hollow, distant, grim voices join in, making this track a mostly haunting and atmospheric DSBM-alike opener. Totally different, however, is the next piece, Atto I: Oblio, which initially (and immediately) brings back the nastiness of the very early nineties’ scene: fast and epic thrashing rhythms, hateful vocals and Nordic-styled leads! Suddenly the song gets injected by a dreamy part based on acoustic guitars, little progressive and post-modernistic, before getting back to the raw violence of the first minute of this song. This way the track continues, towards the end getting injected by an almost hypnotic tremolo lead and some spherical keyboards. Atto II: Abisso (which lasts for almost twelve minutes) opens with piano and acoustic guitars, soon joined by clean electric guitar leads and epic-distant synths, before turning into another fast blackened outburst. Here the drum patterns might bother some, but there is much more positive to focus on, such as the permanence of changes in tempo, melody and structure. The song has some slower, utterly obscure moments, being a nice counterbalance to the quasi mechanic blast-eruptions. The song builds up, stronger and stronger, with those great Sulphur-laden screams, fabulous Dissection-alike leads and haunting synths, before ending with another acoustic outro. Atto II: In Assenza is a short outro, opening the acoustic way, ending with a distant noise of wind once again, like the very beginning. The fifth piece is Atto Finale: Di Notte, Cielo E Solitudine, thirteen minutes of length, and quite comparable to material in the vein of Lustre, if you want to, with hints of Summoning or Radogor. Despite its length, this piece is more repetitive and less adventurous than the former ones (no fast-paced outbursts, for example), yet with an atmosphere even more suffocating and cold. Abisso ends with a re-recorded version of the black-banger Death’s Dominion, which surely is a mostly morbid and aggressive piece of blackness, yet rather ‘traditional’ (but who cares?).

http://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/chiral

 

Pare che in soli due anni di attività il progetto Chiral si sia dato da fare: due demo, due split e due singoli; a dirla tutta dovremmo parlare anche di due album, ma dato che ci occuperemo del primo preferisco fare un passo indietro ed evitarmi l'ennesimo «due», prima che il nostro correttore di bozze mi bacchetti per le troppe ripetizioni.

Se è vero che la prima impressione è quella che conta, direi che con un titolo come "Abisso" e una copertina che ritrae una tetra caverna non possiamo che aspettarci un contenuto ben poco gioioso. Le nostre aspettative ovviamente non vengono tradite: la musica è infatti principalmente una commistione di Black e Doom Metal, ma ascoltando il disco possiamo notare alcuni elementi esterni a questi generi. Questo è indubbiamente un pregio che rende le tracce variegate e interessanti ognuna a proprio modo, tuttavia in qualche occasione ho avuto l'impressione che la strada di questa one man band non fosse ancora chiarissima: l'apertura affidata a "Disceso Nel Buio" ricorda i brani più funerei di Ankhagram, con la sola differenza di un rapido passaggio molto più orientato al Black che funge da flebile collegamento ai due pezzi successivi dell'album; sì, perché "Oblio" e "Abisso" si avvicinano maggiormente al genere reso celebre dalla fredda Scandinavia, in particolare qui si parla della Svezia dei Dissection. In questa fase possiamo inoltre notare un buon gusto per la chitarra acustica in due comparse azzeccate e senza dubbio godibili. Il breve intermezzo di pianoforte "In Assenza" ci conduce verso l'ultima traccia che ritorna in territori Doom, ma questa volta con una melodia portante della tastiera che ricorda non troppo velatamente certo Prog Rock.

L'eterogeneità del disco in realtà non è così evidente, poiché diversi elementi contribuiscono a ridurla: il tono vagamente Gothic fornito dalle tastiere è spesso tangibile e riesce a ricreare atmosfere notturne, a metà tra sogno e incubo; anche le chitarre sporche in sottofondo sono presenti in gran parte del lavoro e accentuano le sensazioni cupe generate dalla musica. In tutto ciò, è comunque da notare che la qualità dei singoli pezzi è sicuramente buona, forse un po' troppo derivativa per quanto riguarda il lato Black — la traccia bonus ne è un esempio — ma siamo sufficientemente lontani dalla banalità; interessante invece la solistica dallo stile molto più old school, una caratteristica senza dubbio particolare in questo contesto. Ciò che manca è una maggiore coesione delle varie sfaccettature del sound, che raramente interagiscono l'una con l'altra. L'inizio del disco è emblematico in tal senso: aprire le danze con un brano Funeral per poi non riproporre più sonorità di quel tipo è una scelta che richiede un'identità musicale più forte, mentre in questo caso ci troviamo di fronte a un sound che pesca di qua e di là, inserendo solo qualche accenno di personalità.

Tutto sommato "Abisso" non è un brutto lavoro, non nego che mi abbia insinuato la curiosità di ascoltare il secondo album per capire come si stia evolvendo il progetto. Le idee ci sono, le capacità di proporle — per quanto ancora acerbe — sono anch'esse visibili: gli amanti dei generi citati potrebbero quindi trovare in Chiral un nuovo nome da seguire.

http://www.aristocraziawebzine.com/recensioni/7392-chiral-abisso

 

Chiral is an Italian one-man outfit and ‘Abisso’ is its first full-length. Chiral combines progressive rock elements with atmospheric black and doom metal. Which basically means laid back melodic black metal with often some slower dirge like passage in between, combined with acoustic guitars, bluesy solos and a pronounced bass guitar similar to early Opeth and the occasional synthpart. Chiral clearly has its heart in the right place but on ‘Abisso’ the execution is severely lacking in punch and ingenuity. Often, the cleaner part sound amateurish, while the more metal stuff is done proficiently, but far too abrasive sounding for the contrast to work well. This has an effect on the overall quality of the album from a project that seems unable to chose which direction to develop into.

http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/en/reviews/view/id/31333

 

In 2014 verscheen de demo Abisso van het Italiaanse éénmansblackmetalproject Chiral. Onlangs werd onder diezelfde naam het debuutalbum gepresenteerd. Leuk voor meneer Chiral maar wel jammer dat hij niets met de goedbedoelde Zware Metalen-aanbevelingen heeft gedaan.

Nog steeds zijn de contrasten tussen de venijnige blackmetal en de melodieuze passages in zijn muziek te groot. Het maakt Chiral tot een schizofreen project waarbij je je als luisteraar op een gegeven moment verzuchtend afvraagt wat de Italiaan nou precies wil. Het doel van de melodieuze passages is ongetwijfeld om aan sfeerzetting te doen, maar het gaat zo ver (en vooral zo lang) de progressieve kant op dat het eigenlijk niet te rijmen is met de blackmetalpassages.
Juist die enorme contrasten maken Abisso tot een teleurstellende zit: het is in beide gevallen nèt niet. Chiral is weliswaar geen slechte muzikant, maar ook geen nog onbekend genie. Zowel zijn melodieuze als zijn zwartgeblakerde werk klinkt best aardig, maar spannend wordt het nergens, laat staan origineel. Kortom: er klopt net zo weinig aan Abisso, het album als aan Abisso, de demo.

http://www.zwaremetalen.com/recensie/33684/Chiral-Abisso.html

 

Nuovo lavoro per i Chiral, band di recentissima formazione ma con all'attivo già una demo – 'Winter Eternal' – uscita qualche mese fa. Il primo passo è compiuto, e siamo oggi a parlare di un vero e proprio ep, dal titolo 'Abisso'.

 

La matrice principale è quella del black metal, ma c'è molto di più nell'arco di questi quattro brani: dall'oscurità doom di 'Atto I- Disceso Nel Buio' – che in certi punti mi ha ricordato i nostrani (EchO) – al lungo arpeggio dalle tinte serene che spacca a metà 'Atto I- Oblio', per chiudere con le note di pianoforte di 'Atto II- In Assenza' (se penso a nomi illustri, anche i Dissection avevano chiuso così un album). Ma l'anima di questo lavoro va ricercata negli undici lunghi minuti della (quasi) title-track 'Atto II- Abisso', un soft black metal ben più di stampo americano che norvegese, malinconico solo a tratti, più spesso vagamente evocativo e sempre schivo.

 

'Abisso' appare un lavoro forse un po' sbilanciato, e se devo esprimere un parere personale l'ho trovato sicuramente gradevole all'ascolto ma alla fine non mi ha lasciato molto. Per il momento siamo in presenza di una band che ha assimilato e concretizzato la lezione delle proprie principali influenze, mostrando di saper suonare una forma non troppo classica di black metal. Ma, ora come ora, non ci vedo altro.

 

http://www.italiadimetallo.it/recensioni/14206/chiral/abisso

Замечательный многосторонний итальянский one man проект Chiral хотя и не так давно взял своих слушателей за живое, но взял плотно, конкретно, многообещающе)). В главном, это видимо атмосферик блак, а ранее исполнял «дум блэк», как отмечено на архивах. Проект работает с 13-го года и выпустил немало демок, сплитов и синглов. Два полноформата опять же. Хотя может быть и более того. Сабжевый компакт-диск представляет нам Abisso, творение, изданное Black Plague Records (USA) совместно с Symbol Of Domination и Metallic Media (USA). И ведь было за что зацепиться - среди обилия профильного материала... не исключено, композер знает какие-то тайны, может быть даже передаваемые со времен этрусского владычества.

Депрессивный медленный блак металл выдает с самого начала Chiral, вкидывая сначала клавишных, светло-серых, почти мажорных, а позднее резких гитарных партий, уверенных, в мелодийном ключе, округлых в своей законченности. Подсыпая потом депрессивного песку, полируя этот значительный по представительности рецепт гипнотизирующим вокалом (похоже на то, что эти звуки издает крупный говорящий удав), низким в меру, черным и немало утробным, хотя и не гроулингом. Понятно, что это сильная заявка на предлагаемую стилистику.

В следующей дорожке применена быстрая схема, резкая, внутри которой, как в аквариуме, живут медленные струнные мелодии, потом колеблющееся черное здание рушится, оставляя гитарный прихотливый перебор чуть ли не в стиле Дэвида Нопфлера. Очень красиво, совсем не по-блаковски, - полный шок. Но все это благочинное впечатление моментально смывается новым черным ураганом Chiral, поддержанным струнными, теперь профильными, неутомимыми, борзыми, режущими, которые как-то незаметно внутри компо перерождаются в неведомые куски чуть ли не прогового содержания.

Как говорится, чем дальше в лес, тем страшнее и ужаснее. Потом где-то далее композер опять включает думовую шкатулку, из которой протяжно вываливается целое море, кстати - черное море, медитативное и ностальгическое, сквозь которое акулой рвется гитарная стрела, проделывая своеобразный замерзающий водяной меланхолический ров. А когда вновь ВКЛ этот голос... Все замерзает, брате, округ, и руки замерзают на клаве, …

Я так прикидываю, что мастер Чирал (у автора никнейм одинаковый с названием группы) мог запросто ковать фюнерал дум, или например блэк фюнерал дум, и его диски бы распродавались по всему миру адскими темпами. Да хотя бы из-за его упомянутого удавьего вокала. А ведь блэковый вокальный эксперимент не хуже, - парень излагает как мощная газовая горелка...

Вот такие расклады на этот компакт-диск Chiral. Не каждый день попадается такой артефакт, не каждый таковый супериорен, далеко не каждый записывается в черную книжку памяти.

Высокие оценки.

P. S. А история, оказывается, не закончилась. Композер и наш исполнитель Чирал играет самовольно в проекте Il Vuoto, который творчески формирует музыку в стиле … так точно, - Drone/Funeral Doom Metal.

 

https://vk.com/wall216331265_2258