Chaos Over Cosmos “The Hypercosmic Paradox"

 

    Mixing together progressive metal and mind altering technical death metal, the international metal project known as Chaos Over Cosmos composes dynamically brutal technical compositions to highlight their science fiction themed lyrics. Led by Polish guitarist and primary composer, Rafal Bowman, Chaos Over Cosmos is an act that seems driven to present listeners with an album featuring intense technicality, star exploding brutality, as well as some melodic atmospheric touches to really make you feel lost in the vast void of an unexplored frontier. 

    On the latest release from Chaos Over Cosmos, “The Hypercosmic Paradox,” Rafal teams up with Pakistani vocalist, Taha Mohsin, for five new explosively technical fueled tracks. Although I have not been a massive fan of current progressive metal and technically death metal trends where I feel the music becomes like a tsunami of self-indulgent solos and chaotic arrangements, I will admit the creativity that gets poured into making the music is worth much respect. In the case of Chaos Over Cosmos, I think what made this project standout from the very beginning was the strong emphasis placed on the album’s theme through the various sounds and versatile arrangements. The solos are very impressive sounding, but the moments where the music slows down and you can hear those epic synth arrangements really adds to the album's science fiction theme. 

    The opening song on the album, “Nostalgia for Something that Never Happened,” is an instrumental piece which introduces the listener to Chaos Over Cosmos progressive, yet heavy style of metal. There is a plethora of fluid lead guitar playing featuring some intense scale runs along with some utterly crushing riffs. For the second track, “When the Void Laughs,” Taha is given his first opportunity to lay down some monstrous sounding vocals to inject a boost of unapologetic rage, which definitely compliments the entropic guitar playing. I thought the guitar arrangements on this track were very precise sounding and delivered a mighty impact when needed, especially the solo toward the end of the song. 

    The third track off of the album, “Event Horizon,” was probably my favorite song because I felt as though the music sounded more emotionally driven and the guitar playing perfectly captured Taha’s fearsome growls. There were even more progressive/atmospheric elements thrown into the song that served as contrast against the more fragmented sounding riff structures. I will say that following song, “The Cosmo-Agony Requiem,” continues with more of the blistering lead guitar playing, which seems to be the main focus throughout the album. At times, I do feel like the slower moments on the album allow for the listener to take in more of what is going on, but I can understand the desire to present these more intense shredding moments which does fit with the feeling of complete cosmic chaos. The last song, “The Fractal Mechanism,” is a trippy conclusion and almost sounds like something you would have heard in a science fiction video game from the early 2000’s. However, the track was very appropriate in terms of sticking with the science fiction concepts explored throughout the release, so I can see why this was used as the final composition to have on the album. 

    In the end, I feel like Chaos Over Cosmos is a project that really focuses on crafting technically brutal arrangements allowing Rafal the freedom to explore his dynamic and very progressive metal inspired guitar skills. Even if you are not a fan of this style of music, the main take away is how everything on this album was executed and how the production was extremely solid sounding. I think fans of blazing progressive metal and technical death metal will want to check out this release, as the creativity and talent level is undeniable. Going forward I think Chaos Over Cosmos has a strong blue-print, and I would be interested to see how the project evolves on future releases given the passionate artistic mindset. 

Check out the full album below:

Link to Chaos Over Cosmos Bandcamp: 

https://chaosovercosmos.bandcamp.com/album/the-hypercosmic-paradox