CHRONOBOROS – DIALING UP THE CUTTER EP (CD REVIEW)

Greek post-hardcore sludge 3 piece Chronoboros play the kind of no nonsense music that mixes brutish and utterly crushing riffs with complex rhythmic patterns shrouded in a haze of feedback.

The EP doesn’t waste time in announcing its intentions and after some of that brooding feedback, the initial noisy riffs and punting rhythms in opening track ‘Gut Tracker’ aim a kick straight at your head and what follows is a barrage of pure noise fury.

The next track and EP standout ‘Raise These Wolves (Like They Were Mine)’ is a slower paced behemoth that comes on like the bastard offspring of Unsane and features some utterly crushing bleakness. The rest of the EP lives up to this initial barrage of noise with the progressive hardcore at the start of ‘Harpoon’ making way for a more full on blast and sounding all the better for it, these riffs are made for bludgeoning and they definitely succeed in doing that.

The dirge of ‘Bison Unit’ and bass heavy and eclectic closing track ‘Clean Cop’ finish things off in bruising style and when the EP finishes in a wail of feedback just as it starts, you feel a bit punch drunk due to the chaotic noise that has just gone on, but that is an exhilarating feeling that you want to experience again right away, showing that Chronoboros know what they are doing when it comes to sheer heaviness. This is music that is punishing, but exciting, hateful, but stirring and I hope to hear a lot more from Chronoboros in the future. A superb start from such a new band.