ALBUM REVIEW: Chelsea Grin – Eternal Nightmare
It’s been a turbulent couple of years for CHELSEA GRIN. The band released their fourth studio effort in 2016, titled Self Inflicted, and hit the road relentlessly up until the point that vocalist Alex Koehler had to withdraw from the band’s winter tour with MOTIONLESS IN WHITE due to his declining health. It was also announced around this time that guitarist Dan Jones had left the band, quickly followed by fellow guitarist Jake Harmond due to the birth of his second child and the shift in priorities that came along with that. The drama didn’t end there as it was also announced in early 2018 that Koehler would not be returning to the band, stating that he was taking the step back to focus on his recovery and bettering himself as a person. This is when LORNA SHORE vocalist Tom Barber would jump ship and step in to the role. CHELSEA GRIN now return with their new album Eternal Nightmare. The band seem laser focused and revitalised with their new line up and are now ready to unleash their latest effort on the world. So let’s see what the second coming of CHELSEA GRIN has to offer.
Album opener Dead Rose serves as not only as the introduction to this album, but also the introduction of Barber to the ranks two months previously when it was released with an accompanying video. The track itself is straight up deathcore. There is absolutely no time wasted in delivering the kind of low tuned, disgustingly heavy palm muted guitar sound that has served the band so well previously. Barber steps up to the plate here and lays down the kind of visceral, paint-stripping vocal display that put his name above so many others in the scene in his previous life. The main take away from this start to the album is the dark and claustrophobic air that surrounds it which is a definite throwback to the earlier parts of the band’s back catalogue and will no doubt serve as a decent hit of nostalgia for the bands hardcore fan base.
The follow up track The Wolf has a bludgeoning opening salvo accompanied by NINE INCH NAILS inspired electronic parts (a sound that has also been utilised by the band MOTIONLESS IN WHITE). The rest of the track is sheer carnage and simply serves as CHELSEA GRIN flexing this muscles with regards to their brutality. The introduction to the next song Across The Earth is the polar opposite and turns to a soft piano and spoken word opening before the introduction of the rest of the band. The track itself is a much slower pace and trudges along beneath yet another impressive contribution from Barber who shifts pitch multiple times between deep, guttural vocals and shrill banshee screams seemingly at the drop of a hat. Ignoring the monolithic breakdown that hits in the middle of the song, the highlight has to be the atmospherics used in the latter stages, giving the track an epic feel that the band should certainly consider exploring further in the future.
The album quickly retreats back in to the band’s comfort zone and the next few tracks See You Soon, 9:30 AM, Limbs and Scent Of Evil pass by pretty uneventfully as a result. Later on in the album is the track Hostage, a previously released single that received generally mixed reviews from both critics and internet trolls alike. The track itself is a decent enough deathcore effort with a crushing guitar tone and a massive awkward, juddering breakdown in the middle. But the band seem to have sacrificed the technically more adventurous guitar playing that had been introduced in to the bands material on the previous two releases in favour of a chug-fest which is a little disappointing. As mentioned previously, Hostage is a perfectly passable deathcore track but at the same time it sits perfectly into negative stereotypes that are typical of the genre when it comes to the overuse of mindless chugging and being heavy for the sake of heavy.
Overall this album is a step towards the old CHELSEA GRIN sound which is not a bad thing at all. The band have succeeded in introducing a new line up to the fans without too much of a dip in the standard of the song writing. As a whole Eternal Nightmare is a solid, if slightly unimaginative effort from a band that were seemingly against the ropes at the start of this year and while they have not lost any ground with this release it is hard to say that they have gained any either. The next release could prove pivotal for the deathcore mainstays.
Rating: 6/10
Eternal Nightmare is out via Rise Records on July 13.
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