Metal Chamber
2656 Days of Obscurity - The Beast of...
4.3
A compilation of the best of Metal Chamber kind of begs the question: what was the fucking worst? What this seems to be is a demonstration of how a band goes from a very bad Bolt Thrower rip off band to a very mediocre Bolt Thrower rip off band. Why this group deserves a retrospective is beyond me. Somehow they have sold enough records to have stayed in business for 15 years. But was there really a clamor for a bunch of their songs in a single collection? Or is this a last ditch effort to get a scene that rightly passed them by to notice them? I don't care. This record is pointless.
The early tracks are embarrassingly amateurish, featuring mistimed cues and conflicting drum fills combined with essentially forgettable riffs. The later tracks are far better, both compositionally and performance wise, but there is nothing here that you can't get from old Grave, Benediction and Bolt Thrower in larger doses and with better quality in every respect.
The production follows the level of professionalism step for step. The early recordings are laughable, and the later ones are tolerable. But there is nothing that lends the group any style or excitement. And they could have used some.
The bottom line is that you probably passed these guys over the first time around, and it was probably for a reason. And frankly, repackaging shit I would not have bought in the first place doesn't make me want to buy it now. At their best this is a mediocre derivative old school death metal band, and at their worst they just aren't very good at all. All this collection does is demonstrate these facts in sharp relief. Unless you already know and love this band, which means you are kind of stupid to begin with, this CD holds little value for you.
