"To the hell with the rules, I am going for the unknown." From the abyss of space and time, terrible sounds emanate. Behold! It is 'Chaos Echoes', the third coming (if counting the full length albums only) of this French horde. Bloody Sign's magic potion is mixed from extreme metal, death and black, and to some extent, even doom.

In the hands of these three guys, at times the chaos is taken in control, but sometimes chaos reigns. They said in the Carbonized Cells webzine interview, that "the music possesses us, runs through our veins." Thus they control some of it, but partly it comes out uncontrolled. The chaotic bits are not unmusical, but are of grotesque forms. Sound wise Bloody Sign are a bit more on black metal side of the things-there is a lot of open-string guitar and disharmonic playing, pounding and echoing drums and bass, and agonized vocals.

It is not surprising, that stylistically the black metal element resembles that of mad and twisted French BM. Shredding riffage and twisted Morbid Angel / Immolation guitar parts come from a death metal field. There are both primitive and some more technical moments heard on this album, but clearly the former one is the dominant style. The songs are still pretty much multi-layered, and therefore 'Chaos Echoes' requires unremitting attention from a listener. Which is further intensified by the fact that the songs are far cries from typical easy metal songwriting formulas. The music's pace is commonly in fluctuation, ranging from fast blast beat punishment to slow, building spots. Three interludes (one for guitar, bass and drums) give short breathers for listener, but do not really cut the flow of madness in any way. Actually, this album feels like one, long sonical journey. The band's music is something a bit different.

Lyrical themes circle around music and Lovecraftian horrors (massive beast called 'The Call'). In two words: great things! Sound is raw, but all the instruments and growled and shouted vocals (with some lines of Simen Hestnaes sounding clean singing too) are all well-balanced with each other. As mentioned, there are multiple planes in the music, some being more hidden.

'Chaos Echoes' invokes elemental changes in the universe, where there is so much to be found to us human beings. Both good and evil forces and matter. Are you ready to hear it, because I believe that with this album, Bloody Sign have opened doors to other universes (hell being just one of the universes in multiverse)?

Rating: 7½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
11/19/2010 23:58