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Chelsea Grin

Desolation Of Eden

Written by: BL on 18/09/2010 11:47:01

Now I enjoy deathcore, when it's well done and when it's more than just chugging your face off with the most dissonant, down-tuned chords possible. Having said that, if that's ALL there is - then there's nothing more to say than to steer oneself away as fast as possible. Chelsea Grin are probably the clearest example of when you should do such evacuation. If you have a penchant for hating deathcore in any way, then I suggest you turn away before you choke yourself on your own feeling of nausea.

It takes you pretty much five seconds into the first song "Judgement" for you to realise that I am not being harsh on this album unnecesarily. A painfully boring and simple dissonant breakdown chug away your ears and your patience before that age old exotic guitar lead that Whitechapel have done to death is horribly borrowed and planted here like slapping a huge sticker on one's face. Sometimes with deathcore bands that rely on so many breakdowns, the good ones often find redeeming factors elsewhere (for example Oceano's knack for executing a cold and barren atmosphere with well worked ambience). At the very least for the love of all things good have some imaginative guitar riffs though. "Sonnet Of The Wretched" is the first to come close with a mildly recognisable riff, but it doesn't take it long before all hell breaks loose, and by "hell" I mean breakdowns, and by "breaks loose" I mean breakdowns.

Getting through the album is painfully arduous, with mid album "Cheyne Stokes" trying its best to show that the band can play something on their guitars that actual requires using their fretboards. The same can be said of the following song "The Human Condition", which fares a little better since the intro features the first decent musical passage you might find anywhere else on this record - namely a decent lead guitar. But again once that passes matters resorts back to the worst. "Elysium" is probably the most enjoyable track on the album (which isn't saying an awful lot) because it's actually quite a melodic and mellow interlude, and thankfully having only two whole breakdowns (only two!).

After that there isn't much to report except odd bits here and there in "Revenant" that linger towards acceptable before being buried in more breakdowns and bland riffs. The album then ends on yet another breakdown song "Wasteland" (insert comment about how title is appropriate to describe the nature of the album, how I think of the album, and my mood after listening to it here). Everything is just so utterly repetitive and rehashed it becomes a sad and unfunny joke because there is almost nothing good to take away from the instrumentals. Vocalist Alex Kohler actually has a rather scathing scream and is probably the best thing musically about the album (if you like razor sharp high pitched shrieks that is), but when you have bands like Suicide Silence and their vocalist Mitch Lucker doing the same thing but ontop of much better music, well you get my drift. Just stay away.

Download: Elysium
For the fans of: All the bad things about deathcore, and bad Whitechapel clones
Listen: Myspace

Release date 16.02.2010
Razor and Tie