Aux Portes de la Mort

This album was sent to me by their label about two months ago. After the first listen it seemed to me absolutely lukewarm but I decided to give it time, to listen to it more and under a different mood before I write the review. Chadenn are from France, they were formed in 2004, consist of four members and they have released one demo and the full length album “Aux Portes de la Mort”. The album contains nine compositions and one intro of forty four minutes total duration. Chadenn play dirty, raw Black Metal with Thrash elements and punk rhythmic parts.

The riffs are other times Thrashy rhythmic and fast, while other times they remind of the punk minimalism and mainly they are very fast, chaotic and raw. Although there are changes during the tracks’ progress, the riffs are so boring and uninspired that the listener loses his interest soon. The guitars are quite distorted and raw but they are trying to deliver the compositions well. The bass can’t be heard almost at all while the drums are played well but their lines are quite boring and predictable. Unlike the instruments, the vocals are awesome. The vocals is harsh, raw Black Metal voice which delivers the compositions with power and violence.

The production is bassy and quite clean, the produced sound fits to the style of the compositions. On the contrary, the mix is not good, on one hand because the bass can’t be heard at all but the most important is that the guitars and the drums are not connected. The lyrics are written in French and they speak of darkness, the night, death, antichristian views, etc.

By all these you can understand that the impression that Chadenn gave me in the first listen, didn’t change much. “Aux Portes de la Mort” is an uninspired and boring album that, apart from two or three good moments, it has nothing to offer to the listener. I would suggest you to avoid it.