Hey there, tech fiends. It's that time of the week again. Before we dive into today's focus, here's the usual weekly reminder that if you're looking for even more sick bands to hear, all prior editions of this series can be perused here.
Once again, I come bearing gifts, this week I've got the early full stream of Chiliasm – Flesh Over Finite for you to ingest ahead of its release this Friday. For those new to the group, they're a multi-national internet project sort of act, aided by an impressive amount of guest musician contributions from noteworthy people. At least for Flesh Over Finite, the line-up consists of guitarist Eetu Hernesmaa, vocals (and a guitar solo on track three) by one of my favorite up-and-coming tech-death guitarists Caleb Simard, fretless bass by Szymon Miłosz of The Ritual Aura, alongside programmed drums courtesy of Skynet. I'm going to have to admit I'm not aware of every guest musician on the release but the notable ones include Virvum vocalist Bryan Berger and Equipoise yeetarist Nick Padovani on track one, Dark Matter Secret shredder Denis Shvarts on track three, and an insane as usual solo from First Fragment guitarist Phil Tougas on track four.
As for what the four songs on Flesh Over Finite have to offer, the band leans unabashedly into technical death metal tropes most of the time, with more guitar noodles, more fretless bass noodling, and more blast beats and full-throttle insanity as the default mode here. Leading to music that wears its influences on its sleeves, mainly those of a Necrophagist, Obscura, and The Black Dahlia Murder variety. Ironically or not, that's really what I love most about this release. If they can keep that going and start working toward a sound or songwriting style of their own they’ll really be onto something. When the group does lean into slower, groovier, or more progressive death metal stylings, the music takes on a definitive Beyond Creation and Gorod feeling which is nice and offers some much-needed variety to the EP.
Chiliasm guitarist Eetu Hernesmaa fills us in on the release from a behind-the-scenes angle:
"We began to write this EP at around 2016, and all recordings were done when we were 16 – 19. What started out as just trying things out ended up becoming a release we're extremely proud of. To make the EP just a bit more special, we invited a group of our friends and musicians we look up to add their own touch to a few solo spots. We really want to thank everybody for taking time off of their day to listen to our work and hope the experience will be enjoyable!
Although we wished to keep the lyrics open enough to give the listener a chance to interpret the meaning in their own way, we can say that Flesh Over Finite deals with inevitability and futility. There are things in this universe that are so primordial and absolute that they might as well be considered divine, and which most of us will have to face at some point in our lives. No matter if we choose to submit to their will or try to deny them entirely, the end result will always be the same."
Given that Flesh Over Finite is Chiliasms first effort, I'd score this higher than I would that of a band who has been around for some time without saying any of that as a slight against the group. They certainly have potential and it would behoove them to capitalize on that by carving out their own space in the technical death metal world moving forward. So be sure to check out Flesh Over Finite below. Orders can be placed through Bandcamp if you like what you're hearing. You can follow the group over on the Chiliasm Facebook Page.
