Review by Fernando on April 25, 2021.

The modern Finnish black metal scene is an odd beast in the age of "blackgaze" and dissonant Avant-garde black metal. A lot of the newer Finnish bands go the primitive route, others down the more polished route, and in today's case, Goats Of Doom went in a very punkish route, for their sixth full length Shiva, to be released through Purity Through Fire.

Goats Of Doom is a fairly recent band, that has been very prolific and has also had a surprisingly unique evolution since, starting as a Lovecraft and Thelema angle in their lyrics for a blend of blackened death, to slowly but surely going on a more heathen route, where the music became more raw, but also much more melodic, and also incorporating folkish and punk elements to their music, that was the case with their previous record Tie on hänen omilleen (as well as their splits with Iku-Turso and Sarastus). For Shiva, the band have both doubled down and even perfected their blend of punkish black metal with folk elements, and now delving into Hindu mysticism with their heathen edge. What most will notice about this record from the get go is how insanely catchy and groovy it is, the guitars dominate the music through some insanely good riffs, harsh melodies, and some of the best hard rock and punk solo guitar work I've ever heard in a black metal record, and that's saying something.

The vocal work is also a major standout. Aside from the blood chilling shrieks and howls founder Scaregod has always excelled at, alongside second vocalist A.H. give the music that mandatory edge and grit that all good black metal has, but the two vocalists, with backup from guitarist T.T. and bassist T.R., they've also continued branching with clean vocals and some ritualistic chanting, which gives the music that air of mystique, which is also boosted by the folk instrumentation for effect to the overall atmosphere. Furthermore, the drumming by R.P. is also excellent, since his quite proficient and dynamic drumming go hand in hand with the band's more sprawling approach for the music, the music having such a clear rock and punk influence needed more than just blast beats (which are present and are used effectively), and R.P. does his part with style and precision.

Overall, it's clear Goats Of Doom have fully reinvented themselves and found their own unique voice, which is some of the highest praise one can give any black metal band given how homogenized a lot of bands tend to be. But and speaking about homogeny, the one and only major issue that keeps this record from being practically perfect is how uniform all the songs are, almost to the point where it feels like one single song divided in 7 parts. Since I don't speak Finnish I can't say if that was the intention or if this is a concept album, but while the experience is enjoyable, and the band performs with such style and infectious passion, on repeated listens the album does feel a tad too repetitive. To the band's credit, they manage to break the monotony in the last 2 tracks which are by far the absolute best alongside the opening 2 songs, and it bears mentioning that the homogeneity is only a real problem on repeated listens, because as a whole this is still a refreshing and extremely enjoyable album, taking cues from a wellspring of influences, and twisting them to make a truly worthy tribute to Shiva the Destroyer.

Best tracks: 'ἀπōκάλυ', 'Uljas Uusi Maailma', 'Armon Varjot', 'Rotat', 'Shiva'

Rating: 8.9 out of 10

Review by Lawrence Stillman on July 22, 2024.

So a few weeks ago, Bowman (the composer of this project) emailed me out of the blue and asked me to check out this album by him. It was quite a surprise, for sure, because I never had someone recommend an album to me this way.

Chaos Over Cosmos is a project from Poland that mainly plays progressive metal, but depending on the era, the albums have either power metal mixed in (early) or metalcore (later, like this one). This album in particular has seen the project go in a more technical direction, closer to Christian Muenzner's solo project, where it is chock full of guitar shredding, technical solos, and so on, while having a heavy emphasis on a space-themed sound to it. While there are prog bands that do music around the themes of space (like Iapetus), this album is... quite a departure compared to them.

The album begins with a song that is incredibly technical and fast yet flows well despite its length, doing a good job at setting up a space-y soundscape for the rest of the album. The abrupt changes to the tempo do sound out of place and weird at first, but after getting used to it via multiple listens, it can be easy to tell when a change is about to happen in the song. Unfortunately, this song is the highlight of the album, and it's time to address the elephant in the room...

...and it is the metalcore elements utilized in the album. "Wait, but you like MergingMoon and Regnum Caelorum et Gehenna," I can hear you wonder, but the metalcore elements here are not just taken from a style I really dislike; they are also quite ingrained into the album itself. Namely, the drum patterns used here are your archetypical mid-2000s metalcore drum beats that came from the genre that gave metalcore a bad name. At first, it was really hard to take in the disparity between the hyper-technical guitars and the random start-stop nature of the drums, but it does get easier after multiple listens. But the tracks after the first one are definitely not what I expected after listening to the first track.

The rest of the album is definitely slower than the first song, but I think this is what really dragged the album down because without the hyper-fast technical guitars (now merely fast from the second track onwards), the songs feel like a drag to listen to whenever the metalcore drum patterns kick in, which are quite often (around 40% of the songs). This is not a good thing, especially with the last song being a mid-2000s melodic metalcore song that has a very heavy prog influence and a long run time. Depending on the listener, it might be fitting because it is the last song in the album, so a slow, calm album closer might be needed to round out the album. The hyper-technical guitars did the heavy lifting here regarding making the songs sound interesting and fun.

In my opinion, what really helped this album are the guitars and keyboards that gave the album a space-y feel. Without them, the album would sound like some crappy melodic metalcore slop that would be forgotten days after its release date, which is unfortunate because all the album needs is more technical drum patterns, and the album will be one of my favorites (it won't help with the last song, however).

In summary, this album has excellent first and second tracks, but the last two songs are really subpar for my tastes. If you are a prog purist who doesn't like early-2000s metalcore (because frankly, the genre is quite the dumpster fire and a half), maybe don't pick this one up because the metalcore elements can be heard throughout the album, and it can be quite distracting if you are used to bands like Eternity's End, Opeth, or Persefone. But if you don't mind some mid-2000s metalcore, maybe this can be an easy recommendation.

Highlights: 'Violent Equilibrium'

Rating: 7 out of 10

Review by Alex on May 17, 2022.

The Silver Lining Between The Stars comes nearly 2 years later after the release of The Ultimate Multiverse, a compilation of past material that was exceptional to say the least; that album connected with me, bringing back fond memories of mostly video games. Chaos Over Cosmos managed to achieve this through the atmosphere and ambience they were able to weave into the music on The Ultimate Multiverse. There were many technical highlights, however it was the dominance of the landscape synth passages infused with the screaming and sung passages along with the drumming and riffing fireworks. However; here on The Silver Lining Between The Stars, Chaos Over Cosmos seems to have tweaked or slightly reconfigured the wiring in the vessel. The dominant factors are the drumming and riffing technicality, meanwhile even though the synth can be heard clearly and does offer some amazing highlights as on 'Violent Equilibrium' and 'The Last Man In Orbit', it takes more of a backseat and allows the explosive guitar work to take lead. Was this a good trade off? Yes, though at first I was taken back by this approach. I had to dig a bit deeper for the main reason I enjoyed Chaos Over Cosmos' music. And to be honest, having to do so unearthed a whole new layer of exploration eventually leading to a more potent immersion experience.

The band can still pull off some of the most ear-catching melodies you'll hear in technical progressive melodic metal, as heard on 'Eternal Return' that takes a giant leap into a crashing frenzy into chaotic technicality yet supported by the backing dreamlike keyboard synth. And what makes this even more enjoyable is the vocal usage that appears sparingly and only when necessary, hence the music gets a fair chance and ample time to breathe and marinate well. With this being done with great effect you'd find each song transitions gracefully such as the progression from 'Control Zed' to 'The Sins Between The Stars' that offers a pleasing touch of singing and acoustic variety; immediately contrasting the rest of the album yet inserting itself as a fitting component and compliment to the record. Hence there are some moments still that take a break from the technical fury to focus on the atmosphere but those moments are short lived however, somewhat still effective as they create different perspectives and avenues from which you can approach the music. It's almost as if it were linear yet presented alternate options to get to the conclusion. And though you may have preference of one aspect over another, Chaos Over Cosmos found a way to satisfy multiple musical criteria as far as balance goes, as well as being able to meet the main expectation of the listener, enjoyment. All in all, one could agree that the key attributes are still present in this project, though this time around its is indeed Chaos Over Cosmos.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10