Review Summary: Doing things differently, with varying degrees of success.
Chaoseum’s early output outright screams
don’t go any further. Formed in 2018 as an offshoot of a symph-metal band Elferya, they released what could have been a solid melodic metal debut if it wasn’t marred by some of the most horrendous vocals in existence. 2020 saw the band recording their first new material after firing the previous singer, while also taking a nosedive into the muds of generic nu-metalcore.
Second Life ended up as exactly that and to make things worse, its lead single “Smile Again” was a partial knockoff of Korn’s “Trash”. They also released an acoustic EP during the pandemic, which is overdramatic and watered down to the point when watching paint dry feels more productive than listening to it. However, that last release contained a glimpse of hope – “Until the End”, a song oddly dark, calm and focused for this band, later reworked for
The Third Eye. And that’s exactly what Chaoseum’s third longplay is about
: doing things differently, with varying degrees of success.
While
Second Life is a mixture of bland instrumentals and forced edginess,
The Third Eye feels compelling and genuine. We get plenty of genuinely fun moments on here. The intro to “Unreal” feels climactic in and of itself, a simple groove with gradually added layers of cold, high-pitched synths, warm vocal harmonies and a tense, clean guitar riff. “Dance On My Grave” feels like a twist on a rave track with its bouncy rhythms tinged with glitchy electro passages, put against a moody bridge driven by double-guitar harmonies to provide contrast. “What If” is possibly the best song ever made by the band. It starts with a semi-humorous vocal outtake laying down a melody for the guitar and seamlessly transitioning into the intro, subsequently introducing funky verses strongly reminiscent of RHCP’s “Give It Away”, separated by bendy grooves and followed by an epic piano-infused chorus. But there’s another merit to
The Third Eye: it manages to sound dark when it wants to. “Sanctum Cinerem” and “Welcome Home” are driven by grim calm verses, heavy dynamic choruses and twists in the bridges: the former has a drum solo, the latter brings about a menacing tapping sequence before a breakdown appears, later cutting to an arched industrial passage mid-scream. Meanwhile, the ballad “Until the End” is the album’s slowest and most emotionally charged song, its soundscape shaped by somber guitars and surprisingly laid-back vocal approach before a harsh, loud climax.
Generally speaking, there’s much more happening with each instrument and with drums in particular. Nearly non-existent on previous albums, here they provide engaging dynamics spiced up by rapidly shifting tempos and a healthy dose of fills. Guitars and synths rise to prominence after too being squandered on the previous record and often become as much of focal points as the vocals. However, the instrumental section is still plagued by a severe defect: the grooves tend to be a borefest. Some feel half-baked but effective (“Unreal”), some are fairly good (the last two tracks) but most are just unfocused and utterly forgettable. It’s particularly grating given that they’re supposed to serve as the music’s backbone and we’re outright bombarded with them; on top of that, the guitar tone in these segments is kind of ugly and shallow.
One more significant trait of Chaoseum’s current style is a heavy Korn inspiration, by which I mean literally just that. Besides their infamous song cloning episode they seem to simply make their rhythms and certain dynamics in Korn’s image. Still, what attracts the comparison is mostly the presence of CK Smile, a man notorious for looking like Jeff The Killer and sounding like Jonathan Davis. It obviously can be off-putting – either by association with Jon or because the listener simply doesn’t like this type of a voice. CK’s high, heavily raspy and more or less nasal singing may be annoying even to someone who likes the band (as I do). Fortunately, he’s good at what he’s doing. His delivery is technically varied, on key and emotive, be it by conveying irony, grief, lust, fear or desperation. As for the harsh vocals, it depends: the high shouts may be jarring but the low-range screams pack one hell of a punch, occasionally even coming close to gutturals.
What he actually sings is a whole different question. It’s usually standard nu-metal poetry like
My world is unreal, it’s all I can feel or unconvincing melodrama like
Make me feel alive/before I cross the line/and go back to hell accompanied by frequent cussing. There are exceptions though, notably in the stretch from “My Wonderland” to “Until the End”;
Why do I feel alone as you’re holding my hand and similar lines are just so much more effective. On the other hand, “Dance On My Grave” depicts the dead narrator mocking people who pretend to mourn him, so the general formula actually works in this case. For other songs you may safely not care.
Chaoseum really hurt themselves by releasing “Smile Again”. If you’re a musician and your most popular song is (partly) stolen… I think you can connect the dots. Which is sad considering how much of an improvement
The Third Eye is over the previous album. It’s not perfect, but still a surprisingly solid effort in spite of its shortcomings.
