Chrome Waves - Earth Will Shed its Skin

Angry Metal Guy

When I reviewed Chrome Waves’ last effort, 2021’s The Rain Will Cleanse, I described its languid, whimsical tones as the epitome of great work music. While not intended as a slight to the band, as everyone needs great work music, it was hardly a ringing endorsement for the Midwest post-black metal quartet. I finished that review, however, by saying that the band had done enough (on tracks like “Aspiring Death”) to make me think they had a great record in them. Mark Z., who had also awarded a 3.0 to the band’s previous record, A Grief Observed, materialized unbidden in the comments to agree with my assessment. He observed that “there is something calm and enjoyable about [Chrome Waves], but I just wish they took things to the next level.” Two years on, is Earth Will Shed its Skin, replete with that (frankly terrible) 2001-esque artwork, the album where Chrome Waves moves to that next level and delivers the great record Mark and I think they have in them?

About a minute and a half into opener “Forward,” it becomes apparent that this is a different beast from The Rain Will Cleanse. Not that Chrome Waves has abandoned its post-black soul in favor of blastbeats or something, but the harsh, rasping vocals from their earlier work are back, the guitars have a greater sense of urgency to them and, although there is still that ethereal distance to parts of the record, it’s just more vibrant. The interplay of the croaky screams and detached cleans on tracks like “Under the Weight of a Billion Souls” lends a sharper focus. Rather than drifting along pleasantly but, largely, without edge as The Rain … did, Chrome Waves now feels purposeful, the bright tremolo melodies pairing off with new drummer Garry Naples’ work on the kit to keep that mournful, yearning edge to what is now a much fresher sound. Without quite reaching the same levels of crusty heaviness, this album reminded me in places (“The Long Rope” and the excellent “The Nail”) of the most recent Downfall of Gaia. And that is a very good thing indeed.

Earth Will Shed Its Skin by Chrome Waves

Spread across a prim 40 or so minutes, Earth Will Shed its Skin flows well, shifting between its softer, more ethereal shades (the opening pairing of “Forward” and “Under the Weight of a Billion Souls”), into the album’s stronger back half. Of course, in an ideal world, records maintain their intensity and quality throughout, but I’ll always take a record that grows in strength over one that peters out. Chrome Waves has delivered the former. By the time we hit the stark, guitar-synth-clean-vocal opening of “What Desperate Looks Like,” the band has me hooked. That track has a sort of effortless misery and futility to it that encapsulates its title, and acts as the perfect lead-in to album highlight “The Nail,” with its shrieking trumpet mid-section (contributed by Mac Gollehon). Like guest Roman Pinter’s sax on “The Long Rope,” this sees Chrome Waves offering something different and finding their voice in a way they’ve not done on previous records.

“Broken,” which closes the record, draws the threads together, delivering a darkly intense slab of haunting post-black, delicate lap steel notes lingering in the background. Earth Will Shed its Skin moves silkily through its different moods, the transitions between distant melancholy and more immediate harshness feeling natural and effortless. The biggest challenge for the record is the production, which is compressed and has a rough edge to it that robs the guitars of some of their beauty, while also selling short the drums, which feel muddy and are often, though not consistently, buried too far down in the mix. This is a shame because it holds back what is otherwise a great record.

Where previously Chrome Waves inhabited a territory somewhere between Porcupine Tree and The Atlas Moth (whose Stavros Giannopoulos did after all found Chrome Waves before getting caught up on other things), they have now found their niche. The introduction of Downfall of Gaia-like intensity, and even something recalling ISIS on “Broken” means that, with better production, this would undoubtedly be the great record I thought Chrome Waves could deliver. Closer in tone to 2019’s A Grief Observed than the band’s last effort, but with more consistent writing and finesse, Earth Will Shed its Skin feels like what I expect—and want!—from a project bringing together members (current or former) of the likes of Abigail Williams, Amiensus and Wolvhammer.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 192 kbps mp3
Label: M-Theory Audio
Websites: chromewaves.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/chromewavesofficial
Releases Worldwide: April 28th, 2023

The post Chrome Waves – Earth Will Shed its Skin Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.