At first spin, the debut by this Portland duo comes off as an exercise in style over substance. Subsequent listens reassure that notion. Not because it is by any means, badly played or poorly executed, but because it hammers the so-called Cascadian black metal style so repeatedly and so tediously that in the end there is nothing left, not one note, but their formula, which to anyone who has been paying attention, as quick as it came on, got old, and may have been born and should have died with Wolves in the Throne Room. Declarations of the Grand Artificer simply elaborates on the style, repeats its parameters and too obediently plays by its rules. It offers absolutely nothing new. Not that it had to, but that would have helped.
Like most Cascadian units, whatever the fuck that means, Chasma get hysterical but it takes a while for them to boil their emotions. It’s a process you see, which apparently takes concentration and at least four minutes. First we have to be subjected to frequent servings of echoey guitars, stretched and too-suffered vocals. The accelerated tempos and the riffage, the poignant kick drums, as generic as they may sound in this recording, will surely come. It is all executed with assurance. Chasma, have certainly learned their lesson. And like good students they build ambience, through paused tempos, subliminal effects, even more suffered vocals. In other words, Chasma are totally generic.
Not surprisingly, two of the members of Chasma were part of Nanda Devi, a post rock band that in 2009 issued an album via Cavity records titled Fifth Season. Echoes of that are heard throughout this album, but that’s not the band’s fault, it is just part of the melancholy which must embalm every other band in the style. More surprisingly is noticing that this album is being released by Moribund Cult. The label has dabbled in variations of the blackened ilk, but this flavor of the day seems a first for them. This record blows.
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Written by Bobby Peru
