ALBUM REVIEW: The Maldoror Chants: Old Ocean – Schammasch
Over the course of the last fifteen years, SCHAMMASCH have swiftly grown to not only be one of the best bands to emerge from Switzerland since CELTIC FROST, but arguably one of the leading acts within black metal’s more avant-garde and experimental side, with all but a scant number of bands even coming close to matching their dark, imposing and imaginative sound.
Everything from the release of their second album, 2014’s Contradiction through to 2019’s Hearts Of No Light, has only added to the bands reputation as an inventive and stunning musical force, with their sound growing ever more varied and ambitious with each new record. The bands latest, fifth album, The Maldoror Chants: Old Ocean, is another brilliant continuation of the band’s sound, but shows some subtle alterations that may herald the beginning of a newer, lighter sound for the band moving forward.
Crystal Waves is an ambitious and expansive way to begin this record, with hazy guitars creating a light and immersive atmosphere right off the bat, with the music gradually building from the ethereal, warmer sound that is starts on to a far denser, imaginative sound that does a lot to accentuate the bands gentler, progressive undercurrent, especially early on. Intoning, spoken-word vocals act as an anchor around which crystalline guitars, cavernous, percussive drums and bubbling basslines are interwoven, impressively captivating the listener, with the subtle shift towards a thicker, more distorted approach creeps up almost imperceptibly, especially when it comes to the guitars, without really developing into a full blown slab of black metal, opting instead for a hypnotic and bombastic sound that’s just as effective and arguably much more memorable.
A Somber Mystery, a brief interlude centred upon a robust, but minimalistic, brand of guitar playing and haunting ambience, touching upon a darker edge and a noticeable emphasis on an avant-garde style, making this short, but powerful song, a great offering that leads into next track, Your Waters Are Bitter, brilliantly. With its sharper, catchy hooks and sinister qualities, this is the kind of harsher, jarring sound that this records first song felt as though it was constantly building to, with driving rhythms and biting flourishes, along with the coarse, domineering vocals, embracing a fiercer, but nonetheless punchy, sound than the two that preceded it, showcasing SCHAMMASCH‘ more noxious side whilst retaining the epic backbone that has run through this album so far, notably with sonorous backing vocals and soaring, melody-tinged licks.
They Have Found Their Master couples the softer, cleaner sound of earlier tracks with a pointed discordance and monolithic, weightier parts that made the previous song so fantastic, straddling the line between these two extremes within the bands music and seamlessly knitting them together quite well, again adopting a slow-burning and dramatic approach to make this as engrossing as possible and crafting a far more eclectic sound in the process.
Image Of The Infinite serves as a streamlined iteration of this albums sound, once again leaning into the angelic aspects of the music and amplifying the progressive touches that have been peppered throughout the preceding four tracks, with the relatively condensed length being filled with some stunning and grandiose moments that mean that this, much like A Somber Mystery before it, leaves its mark on the wider album. I Hail You, Old Ocean is perhaps the closest thing this album has to a traditional black metal effort, and even then, the rawer sound and more forceful, chaotic bursts of aggression are tempered by epic passages, with slick riffs, clean vocals and a sprawling, enthralling quality lending this a magnificent, overblown sound that makes it an ideal candidate to bring proceedings to a close.
Considering this album’s title, listeners may automatically assume that it is a companion piece of 2017’s The Maldoror Chants: Hermaphrodite, but they are, musically at least, quite distinct from each other; where Hermaphrodite places a far greater emphasis on ambience, atmosphere and minimalist compositions, Old Ocean takes some elements of this style and applies the kind of avant-garde flourishes that the band have become well known for, with the sound sitting comfortably between Hermaphrodite and that of their most recent album, Hearts Of No Light an album that saw SCHAMMASCH focusing on creating a lighter, immersive strain of Black Metal and eschewing many of the more jarring touches in their sound to do so.
The Maldoror Chants: Old Ocean, in short, is not only an impressive album in its own right, but also an impressive musical summation of the band’s ever evolving sound over the course of the last seven years, and perhaps an indication of the direction in which SCHAMMASCH will be headed with their sound in the future.
Rating: 8/10
The Maldoror Chants: Old Ocean is out now via Prosthetic Records.
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