UMUR
"Demonology" is the second full-length studio album by Danish, Frederikshavn based death metal act Chronicle. The album was released through Mighty Music in March 2020. It marks the first time Chronicle has released anything through a label, as all previous releases were independent releases. It´s been almost four years since the release of the "Memento Mori" EP from December 2016 but the intermediate years have been spend wisely. Unfortunately for Chronicle "Demonology" was released almost simoultaniously with the COVID-19 lockdown and they therefore had to wait for a long time to tour in support of the album.
"Demonology" is just the right push forward that Chronicle needed to enter the contemporary Danish death metal elite, which makes it even more a pain in the arse that they couldn´t tour in support of the album immediately after its release. The core melodic death metal sound of the early releases is still in place and the variation between blackened snarling vocals and aggressive growling vocals which was introduced on the "Memento Mori" EP is also continued here.
It´s audible on all parameters that Chronicle have moved forward and developed their music, which is now more memorable, powerful, and full of interesting melodic lead guitar themes, but "Demonology" also features a pretty well sounding production job (although I could have wished for the drums to feature a heavier punch) courtesy of Tue Madsen at Antfarm Studios, who is responsible for producing, mixing, and mastering "Demonology".
Chronicle can rightfully be proud of "Demonology" and the development which they went through to get to the point where they could produce a good quality release like this. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
