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Rating: A few months after their debut demo, Chaos Among Nameless return with their first true EP of their career. It must be said that they have managed to make a significant leap forward, and most likely their very first release, in light of what is reviewed here, would deserve a little less praise.
Their brutal death has thickened, in rhythmic structures and guitar work, showing greater technical skill and with much more solid and clearer ideas than before. Kudos to the production, finally powerful, clear, cold yet sharp, giving the work a vaguely industrial feeling (although the band does not resort to electronic effects or metallic sampling of any kind).
If the old tracks from their demo were easily traceable to a rather traditional and raw death metal, in this mini-CD Chaos Among Nameless approach the extreme musical sensitivity of the new generation, that of the post-metal/core which greatly appeals to the hearts of the new generations. The rhythmic and guitar structures of the songs are complex and fragmented, rich in technicalities (see the intro of "Gardener's Love") and do not even disdain odd times (as certain nervous, sharp, and Dillinger-esque passages of "Despondency In Outrage" and "Sick(s) Years Underneath", whose final tail echoes Meshuggah's "Nothing", show). And it is precisely here that both the main quality and fault of the work reside: on one hand, the tracks are varied and unpredictable, on the other, it's fair to say that the tempo changes are not always well connected, resulting in somehow forced and fitted in such a way that the song does not proceed in a "natural" manner. This is probably due to an excessive display of technique making certain passages too confusing and hard to memorize. In fact, the songs that work best are the more linear and devoid of virtuosity, particularly "You Better Stop Eating Hamburgers Before He Devours You", whose "rubber" riffs in the second part recall Meshuggah's famous "Chaosphere".
Songwriting can still improve: some riffs tend to take a backseat compared to others with more thrust and groove, and this especially happens in the central part of "Gardener's Love". Another note that can be made about this debut EP is perhaps the sound of the drums, which tends to be a bit "muffled" by the other instruments: with such a sharp and incisive sound, it would have been preferable to highlight the instrument more to better emphasize the rhythmic passages.
In any case, this EP marks a definite milestone for the Bolognese band, not without flaws, of course, but it is better conceived and functioning compared to the demo "Incarnation" and leaves high hopes in anticipation of the first full-length.
For the curious, I point out the band's MySpace (www.myspace.com/chaosamongnameless) where you can preview some tracks from the EP.
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