THE CHASM -

THE CHASM - PROCESSION TO THE INFRAWORLD - DWELL
Mexico, USA; Shub Niggurath, Cenotaph, Incantation; The Art Records, X-Rated Records, OZ Productions and now Dwell; four albums, bad sound, better sound etc. Phew, front man Daniel Corchado has come a long way in the last 11 years he's been involved with metal and the result is a first North American release for his band of death metal desperados. Surprisingly The Chasm is more bent on the European melodic death metal sound than the US-branded guttural heaviness, a fact that comes as a surprise to quite a few readers certainly. Whatever the exact style though, the musicians are obviously experienced and proficient enough to be recording and it is now once again time to see how viable the death metal underground is circa year 2000. Lastly has anyone noticed the comparison between this CD's title and the band's 1995 album Procreation of the Inner Temple? - Ali "The Metallian"

THE CHASM - THE SPELL OF RETRIBUTION - EARACHE
The Mexican/American band The Chasm is a true metal outfit and deserves much accolade for it, but there are several problems with the band's new full-length CD. Let us get those out of the way. The first thing one comes across is the album's cheesy and, frankly, poor artwork. Aside from a commonplace fondness for skulls everywhere, the band should have let a professional artist handle the art. The other issue here is the album's sound. While not bad precisely it fails to help the metallers' cause. The drums are devoid of power and the rhythm guitar tone is flat. It was reported that the band has had problems while in studio and these might have contributed to the resulting sound. The band has still produced an enticing album for fans of underground metal which given the aforementioned issues is a tribute to the act's compositions. The Spell Of Retribution is the band's most diverse collection of tunes and covers the heavy, death, doom and black metal genres effectively. No, this is not silly like Akercocke or mixing different elements from different genres like Lunaris (both Earache band by the way), but rather all is kept within the confines of metal and a tribute to the band's roots from the '80s when metal valued originality, heaviness and interesting riffs and rhythms. At times, the band sounds like early Marduk (pre slick and high speed black metal), but at others it can be thrashing about like nobody's business. The band can sustain its longer than average songs and keeps the listener's attention by mixing the speed and tempo. - Ali "The Metallian"