The latest from the England’s Dawn of Chaos struck me at moment when I was thinking of the days of me playing, creating and drawing characters from the role playing game Warhammer and the whole Realm of Chaos scenario. I saw the band name, the artwork (I love their logo) and I got thinking “Uhhmm, a new Bolt Thrower wannabe perhaps?”  Granted it may not be completely Bolt worship, but they do have their brief moments.

Dawn of Chaos play a fairly standard form of death metal that pays tribute to a host of others before them. Behemoth circa Zos Kia Cultus, a touch of Barnes era Cannibal Corpse and of course Bolt Thrower. And gosh darn it! But am I hearing a bit of Deathrune? (Remain Forever Entangled is prime USDM…look for it) Lyrically they range the gamut of different subjects from the death and gore, political and even a touch of humor. (Well maybe more so on earlier releases from them)

Musically it’s all done well and production gives them a great sound for the most part and listening to them can be fun. Granted they can be a bit generic, but at 37mins in playtime, you can appreciate the energy and not get too bored with it. Like stated musically things are frenetic and get the head banging. Drummer Ian Finley, should be noted, with his fills and blasting, creates a variety of tempos and puts in a great performance, all the while keeping things interesting. You hear the Behemoth moments in some of the vocals and the varied approach vocalist Paul Hartburn has and with the more grandiose moments with the guitars. While speaking of the guitarists, they are not sitting on their hind ends either and while not being tech metal by any means they offer not only variety in their riffing, but to satisfy those with plenty of chugs and squeals and slayer-esque soloing. The title track, “The Need To Feed “is a good example of what to expect and other tracks of note, “Engineering Atrocities” and “Butchered”.

So all in all not a bad release, good to satisfy the moment and to get that death metal fix, again while not ground breaking by any means, it is a good diversion when you want to hear the those aforementioned influential bands. One thing to take note and maybe confuse matters, but this album is being reviewed as Dawn of Chaos – The Need to Feed in 2015 but the band changed their name to Vacivus in 2013 and to complicate the issue further they released this album earlier as Vacivus – Dawn of Chaos in 2014 with same artwork and track list (?!!?) I am not sure if there is a typo or misinformation somewhere in the pipeline, I’m just following/citing what I see on the Metal Archives. So band info given will be for Vacivus, since essentially you are getting this album and the selfsame band.

 

[Visit the band's website]

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