A good friend of mine, from the local scene where I live, Kevin from Unholy Anarchy Records, sent me the promo for this Baltimore-based melodic death metal band, Chiaroscuro.  He’s trying to help this up-and-coming act and figured, let me see if Frank would like it.  Quite honestly he got me in the Iron Sheik’s vintage Camel Clutch wrestling move and I said ok, already Kevin, I’ll review this damn band ya bastid.

This self-titled 4-song ep has Nick Temoshok – Guitars, Drum programming and Cassiopeia on Vocals to provide us with the brutality.  I kind of dig the pen and ink album cover, It conjured up supernatural lyrical elements and the music honestly surprised me a lot.

“Sunbeat” begins with a terrific guitar tone.  The production for this debut independent release is excellent.  After the opening guitar and drums (which are programmed) moment ,the song gallops with a variety of dual vocal tones, ranging from screaming to gutturals and some killer guitar sweep action.  The song gets into a blast beat equipped with nice guitar harmonies over some of these moments.  The killer deep gutturals at around the three-minute mark, when the song slows, is quite brutal.  There are some guitar solos, and the dual back and forth of the highs and low really sound as if the band has separate singers.

“Hekatomb of Malevolence” starts a bit similar to the EP opener with the guitar and drums and the way the instrumentation is set up.  The song picks up at the 36-second mark with an outstanding guitar riff.  It’s really heavy, and the stop-and-start stylized blasting comes forward.  The song slows, and those raspy vocals take center stage.  Nice guitar work with the melodies and then the blast returns, but this time it’s the bellowing deep gutturals which take center stage.  It punctuates the brutality greatly, as if Ivan “The Polish Hammer” Putski just slammed your chest apart with his double arm bash.  The drum machine programming is quite good; you kind of don’t really notice it’s a machine, especially how many live drums are programmed, to some degree, on recordings, in today’s music scene.

“A Song for Ghosts” was the single initially released for this EP, and it starts with an isolated riff before the double pounding section erupts.  Nice guitar harmonies on the slow down then those gutturals come in with the dizzying jazzy guitar picking and dual vocal action.  There is an awesome guttural growl, soon thereafter!

Alright, Chiaroscuro, I see you!!!  This is a strong EP of melodic death metal that pummels as much as it showcases some of the talent within.  I think the band needs a live drummer and also continue to write so that a full-length album is ready to go soon.

[Visit the band's website]

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