CHRYST — PhantasmaChronica (review)

CHRYST — PhantasmaChronica album cover Album · 2011 · Avant-garde Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Time Signature
I are you...

Genre: avant-garde deconstructionist postmodern metal

Take a look at the cover artwork for this release. It depicts Jesus Christ crucified on a modern wind turbine on top of a Martian-red hill against a clear blue sky. If you can get past the (obviously intended) wonderfully post-modern blasphemy of it all, your first thought might be "that's weird, but interesting". Now, some of the other artwork connected with this album depicts a man with clouds superimposed as a beard upon his face, Jesus crucified on a power pylon, a fish floating in the sky and gear discs emanating from an hourglass towards a floating clock disc in the sky. Again, your first thought is probably "weird, but interesting".

And "weird, but interesting" as perhaps the predicate that describes Chryst's post-modern avant-garde metal album "PhantasmaChronica" the best.

Drawing on main man Christof Niederwieser's background in avant-garde black metal act KorovaKill, Chryst does have strong leanings towards black metal on this release, and several black metal aesthetics pop up, such as the use of black metal shrieks and an emphasis on repetition that characterizes some of the tracks. But "PhantasmaChronica" goes far beyond the already very fuzzy demarcations of black metal with its post-modern and definitely deconstructionist approach to genre within the metal universe. The music is generally quite dark and psychedelic and thus in stark contrast with the cover artwork of the album, and in addition to the black metal elements, the listener is treated to weird - at time humorous - as in the bizarrely epic 'I Are You' (see, even the rules of grammar are deconstructed), or mellow and quite melodic passages, as in 'Metatoprolis', and creepy sound effects (such as the chaotic use of samples of babies crying in 'Templum Tempus'.

Moreover, there is plenty of experimentation with dissonance, spaceyness, epic soundscapes, tempos, minimalism, lushness, moods, electronica elements, sternness, humor and so on. And, as if to underline the main lyrical theme of the illusion of time and space, the opening track is sped up and slowed down towards the end - reflecting that Chryst is a project where even the recording technology itself may be subject to experimentation.

Yes, "PhantasmaChronica" is weird, but interesting. It is at times very tense, unsettling and disturbing, and at other times mellow, pleasurable and even uplifting and at all times avant-garde and challenging. It's one of those releases you listen to in order to explore it as an integrated piece of art.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I seem to vaguely remember KorovaKill as quite a unique act too. Chryst sounds interesting.

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Antibeauty Hardcore Punk
SNOWING IN PERU
Buy this album from MMA partners
Mana Earth Hardcore Punk
SNOWING IN PERU
Buy this album from MMA partners
Intimate Isolation Hardcore Punk
GOOD FALL
Buy this album from MMA partners
Dark Future Sludge Metal
PAIN CHEMISTRY
Buy this album from MMA partners
Violent Delights Hardcore Punk
GALLEONS
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Galleons - Electric Emotions
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 19 hours ago
Galleons - Elsewhere (Official Lyric Video)
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 19 hours ago
Galleons - Neon Dreams (Official Lyric Video)
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 19 hours ago
Galleons - I Travel East As Fievel Goes West Pt. 1 - Official Lyric Video
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 19 hours ago
FREEHOWLING - SCARS FT. AARON MATTS (TEN56.) [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]
FREEHOWLING
Bosh66· 20 hours ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed