Time Signature
Giantkillers...
Genre: progressive metal
Released in the fall of 2015, "Paths to Exile" is Chaos Frame's sophomore album. The second album is always somewhat of a challenge to bands, but Chaos Frame can definitely sleep at night knowing that they did a very good job on this album.
The album opens out with the fairly straightforward track 'Painful Lessons', but in the following songs, the band's progressive nature shows its face, as each song meanders in and out of different sections, moods, and time signatures, ranging from extreme metal elements to epic choruses. Still, the music remains fairly accessible and the lead vocals at times remind me of what you would hear in a musical. In many cases, such vocals do not blend in well with metal, but here it works pretty well.
The guys in Chaos Frame showcase their musicianship and their ability to write complex songs which never lose their focus. As expected, the production is polished, which it should be with this type of music.
Melodic and accessible, yet progressive and sophisticated, "Paths to Exile" is a very good progressive metal album that should appeal to fans of the likes of Anubis Gate, Sun Caged, and Vigilante. It might even appeal to fans of extreme metal with the presence of blastbeats and thrash metal elements.
