CHAOS MOTION — Psychological Spasms Cacophony (review)

CHAOS MOTION — Psychological Spasms Cacophony album cover

Album · 2019 · Avant-garde Metal

3.5/5 · 2024-02-01
siLLy puPPy

If there was ever a band name that described its sound then the Mexican turned French band CHAOS MOTION certainly is a contender of best named band that matches its, well….. music? This strange band started out in 2007 in León, Mexico as Nebular Vision but in 2013 changed its name to the more appropriate CHAOS MOTION. The following year it found itself relocating halfway around the world in Strasbourg, France. A power trio that consists of Alexis Tedde (guitar), Guillermo Gonzalez (vocals, guitar) and Juan Pablo Muñoz (drums), it would take another three years to finally release this debut and so far only album PSYCHOLOGICAL SPASMS CACOPHONY.

Starting out as a mere technical death metal band, as CHAOS MOTION this band reinvented itself as an avant-garde death metal chaos machine that churns out a never ending series of dissonant riffing sessions, crazy complex rhythms and heavy doses of free improvisation that offer an alienating effect beyond the average experimental metal band. This band is all over the place. The aggressive monstrous death metal riffing raging tantrums remind me of a less disciplined Gorguts and perhaps lesser known bands like Replicant, Exlimitir, Dimesland and bizarre side projects of Colin Marston of Krallice. The ten tracks for the most part fall in the Gorguts side of things but the opening “Intro,” “Inner Chaos” and “Outro” are just plain weird improvisational noodling of guitar jangles with strange grating tones.

If anyone disagrees with the tagging of the dissonant death metal subgenre then this album will clearly convince anyone that dissonance can be taken to bizarre extremes and the potential has been exploited to the hilt here making this sound like death metal from another galaxy. While the inaccessible nature of this music may be too alienating for many, the band does at least repeat riffs to create clusters of patterns. Also in the camp of familiarity are the death metal growly vocals that sound like the typical hyper-angsty guttural growls. The tempos and rhythmic drive through is off the charts with bizarre midstream breaks and shifts. There’s really not much structure in these tracks and this is clearly bizarre and avant-garde for its own sake. For many not really tolerable music but i actually love this kind of brutal freakery simply because it takes me somewhere i’ve never been before.

Despite all the weirdness on board, this band is really tight. While the music is difficult to follow and utterly unpredictable as to where it will go next, the three musicians are psychically unified like a flock of birds making mad hairpin turns in the sky. After hearing this it’s actually not a surprise to find out that Colin Marsten of Krallice and now of Gorguts did the mastering. This is the type of crazed band project that totally fits in his large list of bands he’s been involved with. This is a difficult style of death metal to master. It has to have some purpose and cohesiveness to be considered a classic and this album has neither however the chaotic presentations here are what i find appealing. It’s literally a rollercoaster ride through the dark and all the better for it. Not as divinely refined as Gorguts or as totally unique as some of Marston’s projects like Glyptoglossio but stands on its own two feet as a very bizarre and wild disso-death album.