Review Summary: Adventurous, defying and unpredictable, Chapel of Disease have done it again.
Chapel of Disease have become a very strange band. The lads from Cologne led by Laurent Teubl have been on a spiraling genre crisis since their debut
Summoning The Black in 2012, but is it really a crisis? Or is it evolution? Blasting death metal like they were the direct heritage of bands like Pestilence or Asphyx, they made quite a strong impression in the European death metal scene, something they consolidated even more with
The Mysterious Ways of Repetitive Art three years later.
And then came the surprises. In 2018, which is exactly the first time our paths crossed, their third album, the generously titled
... And as we have seen the storm, we have embraced the Eye, presented a band that was letting go of their old school death metal skin in favor of exploring different sub-genres of metal to the point that it became quite the nightmare to classify them. Their third release, published this time through German label Ván Records instead of FDA Records, who had published their first two albums, was a recording that showed how smartly they had incorporated heavy metal, post punk, gothic rock and an infinity of tags into their style and frankly, the results were amazing. You could still call them a death metal band, but only if you said whispering into someone's ear and never in public places.
Six years later and things have changed considerably for Chapel of Disease. With Christian K. out of the band and Laurent taking bass duties for this recording, the band has discarded completely the death metal tag. Honestly, I don’t even know how to tag them anymore, and that’s where most of
Echoes of Light’s charm resides. My favorite track, “Gold/Dust”, feeds from Jake E. Lee era Ozzy Osbourne as much as it does from Tribulation. “Shallow Nights” goes as far as to mix a power ballad with Laurent trying his best Alcest rendition... as good as he possibly can. Opener and title track “Echoes of Light” includes a riff at the beginning that sounds like Supertramp being played by Kvelertak, and the list of weird stuff just goes on and on.
On the other hand, when Chapel of Disease decide to go metal, which amounts to maybe half of the material here, they will blow your wig off. The best this album has in offer is displayed through their most aggressive parts, especially in the first two tracks or in the gothic death rock of “Selenophile”. Laurent’s growls still sound great on those tracks, even if he has lost a bit of that aggressive edge he had in the band’s first two releases. The introduction of synths and lengthy clean parts with ambitious guitar solos and bluesy parts definitely give their music an interesting character, but some of the clean vocal performances are dubious, to put it mildly, and in terms of production their 2018 predecessor had a better overall sound. In any case, that doesn’t mean that
Echoes of Light isn’t up to the quality level you would expect from this band. The album, mixed and recorded by Laurent with the help of Michael Zech still preserves a good part of what made
...And as we have seen the Storm... a fantastic album, and even adds a bit of sharpness to it.
Very intriguing and strangely appealing album this one. It’s a record that undoubtedly will put longtime fans of the band to a test, but it’s also the kind of record that could very well earn them an entire new fanbase that didn’t vibe with their first two albums. Whatever your choice is, know that when it comes to Chapel of Disease, it’s always worth a check, unless you’ve come here looking for some good orthodox ol’ death metal. In that case, you might be better off looking for your fix of filth somewhere else.
