The retelling of savagery seems to be the source of energy for Taiwanese death metal band Chthonic. Their raucous international debut Seediq Bale depicted the violent Japanese colonisation of Taiwan and landed them an appearance at Ozzfest. Nearly half a decade later and we have their follow-up Mirror of Retribution, a somewhat disappointing affair and not for lack of political punch.

Recounting the massacre of a thousand “anarchists” by the Kuomintang in 1947, lead singer Freddie Lim’s delivery is solid – too solid – with his voice forever stuck in a pitch-purgatory that never strays from the middle ground, a telling of energy lost and a passport to mediocrity. The channelled rage comes off thin and strained and each track leans closer in to an album average, blending into each other without notice so that at one point you sit up and wonder how many songs have actually been played. The impressive symphonic backing (with adept use of the wailing Chinese violin) and rapid tempos serve to break up the musical monotony and there is a considerable vein of melody linking the beginning to the end, but on the whole the album sounds more incomplete than thematically unified.

Mirror of Retribution is essentially Diet Metal; the recipe is the same but it lacks the real and scorching energy of Seediq Bale.

- Hugo Stanford

http://chthonic.org/

Tags: chthonic, death metal
Posted in Reviews