It’s no secret that I like many different kinds of black metal here at The Goat Review. As the site’s designated black metal guy, I listen to and appreciate more of this oft-misunderstood esoteric branch of metal than any of my co-writers do, and can, every now and again, uncover some fascinating gems. One such gem is this debut album by French band Incipient Chaos, arriving after ten years of naught but EPs. Playing a no-frills approach to black metal, Incipient Chaos has the potential to become a refreshing, venerable force in the scene beset by cheap, middling melodic black metal and bad raw black metal that people attempt to convince me is good. And, thankfully, their eponymous debut delivers the goods and brings a fresh batch of fast, mean black metal.
“Sever the Oracle” wastes no time in ripping your face off (no one needs a pointless intro, right?) with dizzying speed and pounding, full-sounding drums. The vocals throughout Incipient Chaos, by prolific cover artist V – aka Roy de Rat of VƆID
– are pissed off and run litanies of alchemy across this album’s fifty minutes. But the real star of the show is the delightful bass presence, provided by III (also of Malkavian). The production highlights the tasteful bass noodles and lines throughout, culminating in the delightful solo on “Ominous Acid,” the best song on the album. The guitar lines too are often a nice reprieve from repetitive trem-fests that you might hear black metal records, with Incipient Chaos preferring to go the way of Watain in their riffcraft — small dashes of melody without making full-on melodic black metal. And the clear mix on this debut goes a long way in helping all these efforts.
On the other hand, I’m struggling to find reasons to listen to this over other great black metal records this year. It’s a burst of fun, sure, but it’s lacking that special factor that elevates it. However, there are no bad songs, and each song is memorable, with riffs from across the record lodging themselves in my brain at random times. Sometimes an album doesn’t need to be necessarily great to be a fun listen. Regardless of where it stands against others, Incipient Chaos is a breath of fresh air in a stagnant scene. At times I like my black metal as black metal, without all the bells and whistles.
