Rating: 9.8

Country: Mexico

Genre: Death Metal

Record Label: Lux Inframundis

Release Date: 2009

Track list:
1. Entering a Superior Dimension
2. Callous Spectre/Vehement Opposition
3. Fiery Rebirth
4. Farseeing...
5. Structure of the Seance
6. Vault to the Voyage
7. The Promised Ravage
8. The Mission/Arrival to Hopeless Shores (Calling The Paranormal Abysm)

Total playing time 01:02:06

Band Website: The Chasm

The Chasm - Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm

Daniel Corchado - Vocals/Guitar
Julio Viterbo - Guitar
Antonio Leon - Drums

Metal's fan base might pride itself on being anti-trend, but metal labels are capricious and fickle. The larger ones - your Century Medias, Candlelights, Earaches, et al - ride the same waves of stylistic popularity as Sony, Warner, and other corporate labels. The smaller ones typically peddle to niche markets and lack the resources to offer long-term commitments to bands, and often fall short when it comes to promotion and distribution.

So when a band like The Chasm, which has been around for over a decade and a half, and has earned overwhelming praise and respect in the metal underground is having to self-release their seventh album after the sixth was put out by the now-defunct Earache imprint Wicked World, it should come as no shock to anyone. A sad and disgusting tragedy, yes, but not a shock. After all, this is a band that emerged out of a Mexican death metal scene that received virtually no exposure, and even after relocating to Chicago circa 1999, continued to shun the opportunity to latch onto any sort of trends, opting to instead to fine-tune and expand their own patented sound. This sound, of course, was firmly rooted in extreme metal's most time-tested traditions, owing equally to 80s thrash and early 90s doom/death - wholly unpalatable for the mainstream metal audience of the early 21st century. So when, with the aid of their friends in Usurper, the band received a one-album deal from Wicked World, expectations for commercial viability were low. Nonetheless, 2004's The Spell of Retribution was delivered to mostly glowing reviews, despite not being quite as consistent as the band's previous three records. But sales were predictably slow and the partnership dissolved just as quickly as it had begun.

So Daniel Corchado, Julio Viterbo and Antonio Leon went back to the drawing board for album #7, and engaged in a creative process that would last a full 4½ years. The result is this, perhaps the band's magnum opus. A sprawling 62-minute epic of cinematic death metal that really encapsulates the band's entire career, merging within its scope every element of the band's unique style, and also granting clearer focus to aspects that were present on earlier records, but flew under the radar. Specifically, while at its heart Farseeing remains a mixture of thrash, traditional and doom-tinged death metal riffage, there is a greater emphasis here on the progressive undertones that began to make their way into the band's sound early on. The songs "Fiery Rebirth", "Structure of the Seance" and "The Promised Ravage" all feature ample doses of Voivod-inspired dissonance, which integrates seamlessly with the foundation. Even more impressive is the heavy use of guitar polyphonies. By my estimate, a good 65-70% of the album sees Corchado and Viterbo playing counter-melodies, which gives the record an extremely rich and textured sound that further punctuates the flowing arrangements and vivid atmospheres that have become The Chasm's calling card over the years.

It also bears mentioning that 4 of the 8 songs on this record are fully instrumental. The original plan, according to Corchado, was to have the entire album be instrumental, but even as such, it's a rather bold statement for any death metal band to make and really pushes the pre-conceived limits of the genre. So, too, do the song lengths. Other than the brief interlude "Farseeing...", every single one of these tracks is in excess of 6½ minutes, with "The Mission/Arrival to Hopeless Shores" topping out at almost 12. It provides a challenge to those with short attention spans, but the payoff is monumental [though I must admit, there closing track, which really has the band going back to their early days as a straight-up melodic doom-death act, drags a bit after about the 8-minute mark].

The upshot? Well, if you're looking for an album that really makes a statement - not just about what one band can do if granted full artistic autonomy, but also about what the death metal genre really can become in the right hands, you're not going to find one better than this. If you seek a quick and shallow listen with immediate appeal, however, you're better off looking elsewhere.

October 15, 2009