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Death metal legends The Chasm<\/strong> have been annihilating and beguiling eardrums for some twenty-five years now, always held steady by the rock-solid musicianship of founding members Daniel Corchado<\/strong> and Antonio Le\u00f3n<\/strong>. After a long eight-year wait, The Chasm is back with a new full length album, which, to the horror of unsuspecting fans that missed an earlier statement that any new The Chasm music wouldn\u2019t feature vocals, is entirely instrumental. As a huge fan of the band\u2019s previous instrumentals (as a matter of fact, I even have a playlist of them), I was excited for the newest development in the long-running band\u2019s sound; after all, there\u2019s not much in the way of good instrumental death metal, and if I want to hear Corchado\u2019s growling, I have a lot of back catalog to listen to between The Chasm\u2019s previous material, his work with Cenotaph<\/strong>, and his work with Incantation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Getting past the obvious selling (or breaking, for some listeners) point of the instrumental nature of the album, A Conscious Creation from the Isolated Domain – Phase I<\/em> is immediately apparent as a natural continuation of the sound that the The Chasm guys have been working on for years; leads battle over a variety of interesting rhythms, all in Corchado\u2019s singularly unique personal melodic style (best heard either in the later The Chasm albums or in the two Acerus<\/strong> albums), occasionally syncing up in a harmony but just as often frenetically bouncing away from any instrumental root. The guitars sometimes play (seemingly) unrelated leads, held together only by the bass and drumming; while at first listen, the jumps from idea to idea can seem random, there\u2019s always an instrument (be it guitar or bass) building to a transition or to a gorgeous peak. The way that Corchado layers guitar parts is inspiring as hell; it\u2019s not often that I\u2019ve heard it done quite so well in any sort of extreme metal.<\/p>\n

The battling guitarwork suits the completely instrumental nature of the album in a way that vocals might suit something written to have them; one guitar can serve as the rhythmic base while the other launches into a fascinating bit of technical mastery, and when they come together, it\u2019s to serve as a ground to launch off of into new places. Subtle electronic effects add on atmosphere in opportune places if you listen closely enough but never overwhelm the main instrumentation, serving only to add to the journey of the album.<\/p>\n