Within Chaos - What Doesn't Kill You...
by Troy aka FreakOfNature

Before we get to the meat and potatoes of this review, I need to make a few things clear. Within Chaos isn't a Metalcore band (Which seems to be the flavor of the month). They're not Hardcore, Deathmetal, Speedmetal or Nu-MEtal either. These guys are just Metal. As pure as it gets. Think Master of Puppets if it were to be written today and you'll have a good idea of what you'll get with this CD. Some of the songs actually last longer than 5 minutes !

Bullhead Management was nice enough to toss Within Chaos' new CD What doesn't kill you... my way. I received it on Feb. 20th and have listened to it for almost a week straight to get a good feel for it.

The first thing you can't help but notice is the amazingly professional package. This CD looks like it came right off the shelf of your local music store. The incredible artwork courtesy of Joe from Devastating Designs is about as good as it gets.

Now let's talk about the most important aspect of this review, the music. These tunes are downright mean. The type that make you want to go beat someone up kinda mean. This CD was produced by the VERY talented D. Braxton Henry right here in Dallas, TX so you KNOW the recording is spectacular. Vocal duties are handled by Danny Reid and are very brutal and in your face with no let ups at all. You'd better like raw and ferocious vocals is all I've got to say. Jim Taylor on Bass does a very admirable job of holding down the groove but also goes outside the boundaries a time or two just to keep things interesting. Travis Denham's Drumming is top notch! KILLER double bass pounds throughout this CD. Now for Travis Boyd and Jason Huggett on guitars. As a guitar player myself for about 20 years, I can honestly say that this is where Within Chaos separates themselves from many other bands. The Rhythm guitars are just plain phenomenal and sound HUGE with lots of syncopation with the Drums to create a wall of machinegun type muting. The solos (Yes boys and girls, there are PLENTY of solos on this CD!) are very fast and furious. I hear a very heavy Slayer influence in them.

I DO have a couple of complaints, neither of them show stopping and both of them a matter of personal preference so no offence should be taken. I'm the type of person that likes a little variety in the vocals. Danny is GREAT at what he does, but other than a few Scream-O type vocal moments, the Vox are a tad monotonous at times. Also, the Solos could use a bit more melody to them. I'd like to see this band take advantage of the fact that they have 2 great guitarists by doing some Harmonizing solos, or maybe Solo trade-offs where one person starts a solo break and the other ends it.

All in all, this is a MUST HAVE CD if you're into Metal in it's pure, unadulterated form. I truly believe we're witnessing the rebirth of GOOD Metal music again and Within Chaos is in the forefront of the revolution.

Website: http://www.withinchaos.com