The dark sleeve image with exploding planets gives the game away. “Imminent Chaos Complete” a very dark piece of Modern Metal, helped along away by the ubiquitous Death Metal producer Dan Swanö. The band with the dark vision, whose first album this is, come from Ireland.
“Slaves to Numbers” opens furiously and is cloaked in an angry, sweeping darkness like a Behemoth track. The tone is set of sheer intensity. There’s a big wall of sound and a swirling edge resulting in a powerful and pervasive Cyber Metal. It’s an interesting mix. It’s dark, disturbing and highly technical. These qualities and the outer-worldly fury create the same extreme ambiance as Anaal Nathrakh. At the same time there is an element of Melodic Thrash about it. You will rightly gather that there’s a lot going on. This is how it continues right the way through. The breathless journey continues with “Celestial Fusion”. Once again it’s heavy and harsh. There is a quieter section but don’t expect comfort. It’s distorted and sinister. Twirling rhythms and angry maelstroms surround us and with the chorus and overall mood we head into Mnemic-style Cyber Metal territory. It’s fast, energetic and exciting. Mirrors of Obsidian prove they are capable of switching with a more thoughtful atmospheric passage at the end of “Exist by Program” and a creepy and desperate mood on “In Dissonance We Breathe”. The title track which closes the album has a minimalist air of Death and even an air of insanity before a powerful build-up. In between times it’s back to the frantic fever which dominates this work. There’s no respite for the drummer. “Hive Mind” is typical, featuring more bone-crushing, rapid-fire Metal from some other universe. The singer sounds distant as ever, as if he’s caught up in the storm. Where he is doesn’t sound like a nice place. This music is not of the real world as we know it.
As dark albums go, “Imminent Chaos Complete” is one of the darkest. It’s also invigorating in its way and definitely one to break up any peace that there might be around. Full of malicious intent and creepiness, it’s got plenty of atmosphere and intensity to stimulate the senses.
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