Johannesburg-based industrialised thrash metal machine Chaos Doctrine‘s third album called Bellum is out today and promises to leave scorched earth in its wake, with 9 tracks delivering everything we have come to expect from Chaos Doctrine – and a whole lot more.
‘Bellum’, meaning ‘war’, delivers a sonic journey where Chaos Doctrine has unapologetically experimented to expand their repertoire exponentially, without compromising their distinct sound or forgetting to deliver on what they do best.
Chaos Doctrine has always been vocal about their philosophy that every album they produce must be better than the previous one.
This applies not only to the songs but also to the technical production. Bellum was recorded, mixed, and mastered by guitarist Alec Surridge in the band’s own Gemini AD Studios, and sees vast progression in production quality from its predecessor.
Chaos Doctrine Guitarist and producer Alec Surridge comments on the new album
“This album has been a learning curve for us from both a creative and technical production perspective. With all of us being utmost perfectionists, I wanted to make sure that we deliver a high-quality album, one that is polished enough to bring life to each of the individual songs, without losing the rawness that is fundamental to our music.”
“‘Bellum’ represents virtually countless hours of recording, listening, tweaking, re-recording, and re-tweaking every second of every track to do just that. There is no template when it comes to Chaos Doctrine – every song is unique, and so the production of every song must be unique too. This always pushes back our release dates, but we refuse to compromise on our sound!”
Bellum brings us a visual assault that matches the barrage inflicted on our ears. The album cover comes from the mind and pen of bass guitarist, backing vocalist, and band visual artist Phil Carstens.
Phil Carstens comments
“Cantered is a biomechanical Lord Shiva, amid his ‘Rudra Tandava’ cosmic dance of creation and destruction. The background tells a story of violent degradation and decay.”
“Framing it all is a timeline, reflecting forgotten and exploited history that has made its way into the band’s lyrical content since our beginning. The lyrics to ‘The Destroyer’ tell the whole story!”
Bellum Track By Track: Unravelling Chaos Doctrine‘s Sonic Odyssey
1. Vocalist Dr D shares, “We first shared a taste of ‘Bellum’ with the world in 2022 when we released ‘Lifting the Veil’. This was characterized by heavy thrash metal underpinned by gritty face-melting industrial. ‘Lifting the Veil’ now kicks off the album, representing a radical departure from our preceding two albums’ extended industrial intros.”
“‘Bellum’ brings a mix of the best that our fans expect of us, and the best of us challenging the creative confines of our style and collective musicianship. ‘Lifting the Veil’ sets the tone for this by pushing the album directly into a shredder featuring some of Alec Surridge’s best guitar solo work to date. You know immediately that we mean to crush skulls with this album. There is no room for warming up, and no reprieve!”
2. With ‘Bellum’, the band promised to challenge their boundaries, and ‘Trial’ is Exhibit A in a rapidly growing pack of evidence.
Every piece of this monster introduces elements that the band has never done before, each stamped hard with the Chaos Doctrine seal.
A brief guttural solo vocal drops you into a spiral of seemingly off-tempo skin-ripping riffs before descending into a Dante-esque and discomforting journey of symphonies and choirs, constantly offset by bone-crushing death metal.
3. ‘Building the Ultimate Tank’ gives the first trademark Chaos Doctrine creepy intro on the album… a short-lived descent before all hell breaks loose with staccato thrash metal galore.
Before you know it, a grim dystopic picture is being painted by a hypnotic bass riff, relentless industrial clangs, and podium-like vocals that dig dirty fingers deep into your brain.
4. ‘One of My Bad Days’ features relentless energy with thunderous rhythms from drummer Jason Eedes, as Chaos Doctrine unleashes tales of intense emotion.
This track, unveiled as the third single from the album in July 2023, has garnered acclaim from Metal Hammer as one of the standout Metal Songs of the Week and among the top 100 New Metal Songs of the Year.
‘One of My Bad Days’ epitomises Chaos Doctrine‘s signature style, blending thrash/death metal with industrial elements, highlighted by powerful vocals and a skillfully crafted guitar solo.
5. ‘The Destroyer’ tells the story of nuclear destruction interpreted as Lord Shiva’s wrath. The track is another that takes the band to new frontiers, delivering a mid-tempo melodious offensive that encapsulates an unnerving bow-played sitar and consummate Chaos Doctrine grooves.
6. The orchestral introduction of late 2022’s single ‘Martyr’ brings a brief respite to the listener. Two versions of this song hit the airwaves before, known as the ‘Clement V’ mix, and the ‘Jeanne D’Arc Mix’ (which featured the vocal prowess of Capgras Delusion’s Laura Cayzer).
Both versions enjoyed much critical acclaim, including another Metal Hammer honor of standout Metal Songs of the Week and among the top 100 New Metal Songs of the Year.
‘Bellum’ brings us a remastered version of the ‘Clement V’ mix, which introduced for the first time Chaos Doctrine’s ability to deliver a doomy number complete with clean singing and intricate symphonic arrangements. The Jeanne D’Arc Mix, in turn, will make its appearance on the band’s next EP, tentatively set for release early in 2025.
7. As the acoustic outro of ‘Martyr’ gently fades, the ultra-aggressive, ultra-fast ‘Heretic’ feels like being hit by a bullet, or a bullet train. Shredding guitars, blast beats, and old-school death metal vocals are immediate.
The shelling is briefly interjected by a superb interlude of perfectly mashed groove and melody before the lecture in Egyptology is completed through another barrage of heavy artillery.
Drummer Jason describes the track ‘Heretic’ as “a brutal lesson in the next level of heaviness that Chaos Doctrine is capable of. “It is undoubtedly the heaviest and fastest track we have done to date and pushed us all to our physical limits in its delivery. This is why we decided that it would be the fourth single from ‘Bellum’: it is a crazed testament to what we do, who we are, and what we can do!”
8. Eighty miles out, six feet deep. This is ’86’. Another track led by the band’s gritty industrial groove experiments, it puts the pulsating boom of a dark techno track in the front, driven by uncompromising riffs and grinding death metal vocals. Short, thrashy, and catchy, ’86’ hits like a baseball bat to the back of the head.
9. The album comes to an end that feels premature, yet deserving, in ‘CiviLIESation’. Like ‘Trial’, this track is an epic journey through diverse soundscapes.
After an industrious orchestral introduction offset by grinding riffs, the vocals return to the podium, picking up where ‘Building the Ultimate Tank’ left off to paint grim views of contemporary society.
A barrage of symphonics is interrupted by scathing barking death metal interludes before the track’s climactic end serves as a fitting conclusion to the album.
Overall ‘Bellum’ gives us Chaos Doctrine at their finest: boundary-pushing industrial-infused extreme metal. It represents a new level of maturity for the band from every conceivable angle: songwriting, musicianship, creativity, freshness, delivery, production.
As with its predecessor, it also delivers a track for everyone: regardless of your preferred genre of metal, there is something here for you. Make sure it reaches your ears… and the ears of everyone you know.
You can stream / download the album HERE.
Watch this space for updates in the Music News category on SA Music Zone.
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