Style: stoner/heavy rock (minimal, mixed vocals)
Review by: Dylan
Country: Australia
Release date: 24 June, 2021
At times, this blog can be really challenging to consistently write for. Having to sit down and digest “purposefully” complex music week in week out while unsure of its quality can and has taken a toll on me many times. And this is for good reason, because some of the releases we get are such a mind puzzle to work out, and even then the puzzle you resolve is that the album is bad. So it is always good news when you sample your new album pick and it sounds like CHASSM. A band that ultimately sticks to simpler ideas of musicianship while managing to create exciting tunes.
The formula of Falling Forever is essentially primitive from an innovation standpoint. Stemming from genres like Doom and Stoner, their basic idea is to fill your speakers with riff-walls that will both crush you and make you move. Because of this, other tropes of “head-crushing riffs” accompany this release: A production that feels massive, a bass that feels non-existent on the general scope of things but is actually carrying the album’s lower frequencies, and the occasional vocal melody/interlude thrown in to offer a palate cleanser between all the heaviness.
And…. really that’s it. Conceptually there’s really nothing more to it than that… but I’ll be damned, they take this limited blueprint and go to town with it. Not a second is wasted here, this is 47 minutes of unadulterated heaviness with the perfect balance of riffage, ambience, atmosphere and melody to properly deliver the goods on an album that’s majorly instrumental. Falling Forever is the prime example of how a simpler idea can take you way further than overcomplicating things for the sake of it, and that’s a lesson many underground artists have yet to learn. If you’re the type of fella that likes to be crushed by some well written riffs, whilst immersed into an unique grim atmosphere that crushes and picks you up, I highly recommend this album.
Recommended tracks: Absentia Terra, Pariah, Drowning
Recommended for fans of: Samsara Blues Experiment, Elder
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | metal-archives page
Label: Independent
Chassm is:
– Elijah Lee (vocals, guitars)
– Jess Cameron (bass)
– Storm Mahan (drums)
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