Review by Felix on September 22, 2025.

A Tyrant at the vocals and Mr. Flagg himself playing all instruments except the drums – this is the complete line-up which was needed for the recording of "Cosmic Chaos Manifest". In all honesty, sometimes the drums sound as if they had been done by the colleague called computer, but that's nothing I want the duo to blame for. So don't take my headline too seriously. Anyway, it is a fact that the high speed sequences sound pretty mechanical due to the stupidly hammering snare drum. And you guessed it, there are many very rapid parts on the second album of Flagg. So we have a delicate problem here. Usually high speed can intensify the listening experience by expressing the creative fever and the passion of the artists. But "Cosmic Chaos Manifest" conveys more the feeling of standing in a production hall where workers or even robots are hammering away at a piecework rate. This is a pity in view of the general potential of the duo. There are some cold, merciless and vicious guitar lines, but they can not unleash their full power because of the almost soulless overall picture.

"Devil's Blood" is emblematic in this context. As if chased by a wild animal, the band races through the song with guitar lines that are probably good but not perceptible in all their nuances, and only at the end does something similar to a lingering impression emerge. The neighbours of this song, the title track and "Circle of Stones", follow more or less the same approach. This is highly concentrated insanity, but a song-friendly arrangement sounds different. Due to a keyboard line, "Circle of Stones" shows in the final metres how powerful this piece could have been. Too little, too late, as much as I regret it. Maybe they should have shown more courage concerning the integration of the keys and the same applies for the very rarely occurring almost pastoral singing.

Instead, Tyrant's vocals commute between very harsh, very raw and almost parodically distorted. As a result, he also adds an inhuman touch. This is no problem in general, but here he reinforces the mechanized vibrations of the album. Don't get me wrong, all these things do not turn a good work into a pile of shit. Nevertheless, there can be no question that the two dudes from Finland did not make the most of their possibilities. "Diabolical Bloodlust", the successor of "Cosmic Chaos Manifest", shows what they are truly capable of. But the here reviewed album is not much more than a collection of nine outbursts (plus intro) of total anger and enormous violence, presented with a somewhat flat mix. This formula works from time to time and it can be the right valve when you need to let off steam after a hard day's work. But I miss ten percent more diversity, two or three really outstanding guitar lines and a higher degree of atmosphere, a very important ingredient for a black metal album from my point of view. But who cares about me? The slaughter goes on and on with songs like "Plague Eternal" as if the two gentlemen thought they had discovered Columbus' egg with this approach. My Finnish friends, you are wrong.

Rating: 5.8 out of 10