Review by Felix on June 27, 2024.

Some statements are simply true, for example the following one: Suicidal Winds did never mince words. Their black thrash metal was always brutal and ruthless. Song titles like “World’s End”, “Annihilation and Chaos” or “Death to All” do not herald a new musical direction, even “Freddy Flesheater” is not a fun track. And indeed, the Swedish quintet starts another amok run, although the surprisingly slow, almost (but only almost) emotional intro “Slowly We Frost” opens the album in an unexpected manner. But believe me, it does not take long until the band fires from all cylinders again.

From all cylinders? Yes. All the time? Yes, and therefore it is only logical that the individual songs hardly differ from each other. Of course, we have the already mentioned intro, a boring experiment which is as uninspired as its title (“Ballade of Death”) and the oh so hidden track, a bass solo with a length of four minutes. Nobody knows why the Swedes thought that we have to listen to this completely superfluous piece. Anyway, I am generous and do not take it really into consideration. It’s just another stupid hidden track, so what. The remaining nine tracks are of much more relevance. The musicians turn into rabid bulldogs and bite the calves of anyone who's in their way. On the one hand, this is a very good, authentic and completely anti-commercial attitude. But it also leads to the individual riffs, verses and choruses blurring together, which robs the songs of their unmistakable identity to a certain extent. Whereby I must say right now that individuality is overrated. Sometimes I see people on the street with completely shitty, extraordinary clothes, the parody of a hairstyle, a collection of bad tattoos and so on and then I wish these dudes would be less showy.

But okay, maybe it is my mindset which is the problem here. What I wanted to say is that individuality is no crucial factor from my point of view. Okay, its absence makes it difficult to highlight single songs, but I concentrate on other things. For example, I enjoy the smooth and coherent flow of most tracks. It is no matter of course when it comes to bands like Suicidal Winds with such a cross-grained, wild and blunt way of proceeding. I also like the very short melodies which are integrated every now and then. The performance of the lead singer is okay as well. Of course, he sounds completely one-dimensional, but his screams embody sovereign contempt and if there's one thing you can't accuse him of, it's that he spares his vocal chords. Finally, Suicidal Winds manage to create a dynamic overall impression. This is surprising in view of the almost omnipresent high velocity. Despite the uniform tempo, the art of the band is never tiring.

The production is as precise as the drumming of Thomas Hedgren or the performance of the entire line-up and there is no single gram of fat here. Not in terms of the production, not in terms of the musical content. All songs fail to reach the four minutes mark, they just deliver short sharp shock treatments in a very mangy way. This means that “Chaos Rising” is another very cool album in the discography of the band whose status is unknown. I hope the musicians have not inhaled some suicidal winds and I am of the opinion that it is time for a new album, exactly ten years after their last work.

Rating: 7.8 out of 10