EP REVIEW: Chimerical Reality – And Hell Followed With

AND HELL FOLLOWED WITH haven’t had a particularly easy ride. After attempting to make a splash with the initial rise of deathcore in the late noughties, the group ended up breaking up back in 2012 after two albums. It’s fair to suggest that they definitely weren’t swinging with the same weight as their genre mates at the time, and in an age where the heaviest was considered the best, there just wasn’t much room for them to truly compete.

Jump forward seven years, and things are luckily a lot different. The time away from everything has granted the band time not only to refine their writing, but also to gather new influences on the way that all start showing up on their latest release Chimerical Reality. Boasting an impactful bit of artwork to boot, the new EP is a return to form for the old guard, and where the melodic influences once felt tact on, this time feel far more natural and intertwined with the heavy passages that make up the majority of the EP.

The Notion of Freedom builds slowly towards an epic guitar solo after a sluggish intro, and the flow of the song cannot be ignored. Transitions feel smooth as you like, and it doesn’t just serve the song well, but it serves the EP as a whole tremendously. The chugging nonsense of Discordance fills the cliché of an intermission but does so with a least a little bit of thought towards the who EP given its swift transition into the following Retribution. But when it’s all said and done, why the band bothered making it a song in its own right is a bit of a mystery.

Retribution does see AND HELL FOLLOWED WITH really flexing their melodeath muscles with a riff that feels like IN FLAMES on steroids before the downtempo punishment of the title track starts to make its presence felt. Comfortably the best thing about Chimerical Reality is how swiftly and effectively the band switch between standard deathcore fodder and melodeath sensibilities. It creates a more varied pallet than most modern deathcore acts. The variety is a welcome addition, even if it does come at the expense of areas of the EP not sticking their landing as well as they should have.

AND HELL FOLLOWED WITH might not be the band that everyone expected to make a comeback, but Chimerical Reality is a strong starting point for a band looking for a fresh start. Whilst their previous run might not have turned as many heads as they could’ve done, the groups proficiency in fusing melodic guitar work with some crushingly heavy passages feels better now than it ever has done. As the final moments of Dear Father close out the EP, there is a definite sense of more to come, and makes AND HELL FOLLOWED WITH a welcome bit of levity in a world where bigger seems to always be better.

Rating: 7/10

Chimerical Reality is out now via Hollowed Records.

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