MP3: Deathchain - The crawling chaos
Finnish metal acts Sotajumala and Deathchain have a new split CD out now via and the label was kind enough to send a copy my way. Conceptually speaking, it's a fun idea: two bands, one original song plus one Iron Maiden cover each. In execution however, all is not well. Things start off poorly with Sotajumala's "Sinun virtesi", a typical modern death metal track with clicky drums (heavy on the blasts, 'natch), burpy vocals and your usual swarm-of-bees guitar tone. Totally pointless, totally boring. Their Maiden cover on the other hand ("Prowler"), is excellent, no doubt helped along a fair extent by the appearance of one Paul Di'anno on lead vocals. Stop and ponder how sad it is that the dude is now reduced to doing karaoke covers of his old band's songs and the luster starts to dim, but he does actually sound remarkably good still, near 30-some years down the road. Deathchain doesn't fair nearly as well with their take on "Purgatory" -- they're way too stiff to approximate Maiden's trademark gallop and guest vocalist Tommi "Tuple" Salmela (Tarot) pretty much sucks. All is not lost though, Deathchain's one original cut ("The crawling chaos") is a total black-thrash rager in the vein of Grotesque or The Crown. All razor sharp riffs and harsh vocals -- definitely bodes well for the band's forthcoming album. I love Maiden and all, but this one song is the winner by a longshot.
Deathchain - The crawling chaos