Blood Chalice – The Blasphemous Psalms of Cannibalism

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BLOOD CHALICE is a Black/Death Metal band from Finland, formed in 2015. This is the band’s second full-length, and contains twelve songs. “The Black Mass” is the first. The production isn’t as bad as many Black Metal albums, but it is still pretty muffled. The riffs are elementary, the drums machine-gun like, and the vocals vary from gutturals to screams. These are pretty standard, proto-typical FWOBM songs. “Antichristian War Declaration” is a slower moving song, with a weighted riff that uses many open notes. This is the standard fall-back for many Metal bands who can’t blaze their own path. The vocals are a bit different, however.

“Burned Faith” is a fast-moving song over a bed of filthy vocals and nasty, aggressive guitars. I can hear the Death Metal elements in this song, as it is nearly devoid of all melody. “Celestial Destoyer” is a longer song consisting of a lot of mayhem and chaos out of the gates. The sound is horrendous and harrowing but hardly structured at all. It slows towards the middle, but picks back up again, smashing through every barrier that exists, with eerie, metallic sounds towards the end. “Blood Worship” is a short, two-and-a-half-minute burner that peels your skin off and burns your insides out. It is chaotic and hateful.

“Temet Noise” is another short song that sound similar to many of the others on the album. The pace is mid-tempo at first, but hasty and burning later. Guttural vocals mark the slower passages, while screams mark the faster ones. “From the Grave of Livyatan” is another burner, with varied vocals. The screams are tortured and the gutturals sound like the come from Satan himself. “The Rise of Iconoclast” closes the album, beginning with a slow, desperate, and lumbering groove of desolation, before turning into pandemonium later. Approaching the half-way mark, clear thumping bass notes can be heard, under eerie leads. Of course, the ending is again chaotic.

Although you have to give the band props for their energy, and enthusiasm, their musicianship leaves much to be desired, especially within the guitar work. Many of the riffs are just devoid of melody, as are many of the songs. The chaotic nature of the album is noteworthy, but in the end, I question what this band brings to the world of Metal today, if not a lot of noise.

Songwriting: 3
Musicianship: 3
Memorability: 3
Production: 5