Chrome Waves - The Rain will Cleanse

Angry Metal Guy

Chicago, Illinois’ Chromes Waves have been lapping gently on the post-black metal and shoegaze shores since their formation in 2010. With a line-up featuring members busy with other projects, it seemed outside interests were hampering Chrome Waves‘ output, which was limited to a 2012 EP until 2018. At that point, founding member Jeff Wilson departed Wolvhammer and Abigail Williams, turning his full focus to Chrome Waves. Later that year, the debut, A Grief Observed, appeared, garnering a solid review from Mark Z. The same year saw compilation The Cold Light of Despair¹ appear. This creative frenzy continued into 2020 as, apparently unnoticed by this blog, their sophomore LP, Where We Live, appeared. A year on, and further line-up changes behind them, Chrome Waves are back with third full-length effort, The Rain will Cleanse. With Steel Druhm assuring an increasingly nervous writer pool that Mark Z. is on ‘sabbatical’ and will ‘probably’ be back soon, it falls to me to ask if The Rain Will Cleanse or merely leave a nasty puddle for AMG Janitorial to deal with.²

Even over the relatively compressed time period in which Chrome Waves has been properly active, its style has noticeably shifted from something resembling post-Swallow the Sun on the debut, through a The Atlas Moth-esque sound on Where We Live, to something occupying a strange midway point between In Absentia-era The Porcupine Tree and Dawn of Solace, with occasional Falls of Rauros flourishes (most notably on the album closer “Aspiring Death”) on The Rain will Cleanse. The clean vocals that dominate the album have an ethereal distance to them, which, coupled with the synths and post-metal guitars, gives The Rain will Cleanse a dreamlike quality. This is only occasionally punctuated by rougher seas, when ex-Skeletonwitch drummer Dustin Boltjes steps up the pace (like in the closing minute or so of “Sometimes”) or harsher, rasping screams are introduced to the mix (“Aspiring Death”). These are used very sparingly, however, especially compared to the debut.

The Rain Will Cleanse by Chrome Waves

The almost gothic doom grandeur that opens “A Future” seems like Chrome Waves may be upping the intensity, building like a storm at sea to a perfect tempest, but tempest never comes and the squall blows out quickly, before the band settle back into what appears to now be their post-shoegaze comfort zone. For the most part, The Rain will Cleanse flows and swirls around the listener, offering up rich, dynamic soundscapes, as mournful and occasionally progressive guitars sit atop restrained drumming. The percussion does periodically branch out into something more complex (closing passages of “A Future”) but for the most part gentle progressions and atmospherics are the order of the day. The slightly fuzzed bass of new member Zion Meagher, whose addition expanded Chrome Waves to a four piece, is the through thread that offers some backbone to The Rain will Cleanse.

At just a smidge over 40 minutes, The Rain will Cleanse is pretty tightly written and bloat-free. At the same time, however, it is conspicuously lacking in real standout moments. Chrome Waves keep things on a fairly even keel for the duration. What the band do very well is generate a mood of somber lament and ethereal loss that permeates the DNA of the album. Ironically, it’s also that atmosphere that slightly holds back the record because Chrome Waves seem so reluctant to break out of that template. There are enough hints here – in the backends of “Sometimes” and “A Future,” as well as littered across album highlight “Aspiring Death” – to show that Chrome Waves know how to introduce those moments of progressive variation. They just need to do it a little more often for me. Similarly, while the production is solid, allowing the instruments room to breathe and do their work, the whole thing lacks a bit of punch. Nothing really stands out in the mix, with the drums sounding a little distant and the vocals a little washed out, with too much echo on them.

The Rain will Cleanse is the epitome of great work music. If that sounds harsh, it’s not meant to be. I work a lot, sadly, and always like to work to music and I can see myself regularly returning to this for that purpose. The Rain will Cleanse has a great rolling flow and sorrowful mood to it that envelop the listener in a satisfying way but because Chrome Waves rarely lift themselves above that, the album lacks a little in bookmark points, those moments that make your ears prick up and force you to pay attention. I enjoyed the record and Chrome Waves do more than enough to make me believe they have a great record in them but this isn’t quite it.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Transcending Records and Disorder Recordings
Websites: chromewaves.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/chromewavesofficial
Releases Worldwide: September 10th, 2021

The post Chrome Waves – The Rain will Cleanse Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.