PALE CHALICE – Black Metal has it’s sharpened claws all over the globe. San Francisco, California is well represented by this Blackened and mightily determined genre, with Pale Chalice. This is a band that has been evolving since the end of 2008, honing and molding their Black Metal craft to the fantastical sound I hear on this four song EP – Afflicting the Dichotomy of Trepid Creation. This being a debut Blackened offering from Pale Chalice, it is nearly thirty minutes of intense sound that has penetrated my Black Metal corridor and staked it’s claim.
Music is all about vibrations and it’s those “vibes” that tell me when a band truly “feels” their sound they have created. Pale Chalice “feels” their sound, they convey Black Metal tonality with a welcomed air of vigor. This band is not an underground anomaly, instead they are embarking on a path that will most likely lead them to underground distinction, if they are not already there.
The overriding viciousness of the vocals spills out over each song, while the screams are factually bone chilling. Dark and mysterious are the lyrical content within all four songs, which prey on the extraordinary. This EP thunders along as heaviness is concerned, while the melodic nature of these songs is conclusive. Pale Chalice couples heavy and melodic in an impressive style, never waverering from their Black Metal mystique that sets all four songs ablaze.
The tempo shifts that Pale Chalice utilizes are essential in setting the blackened mood, at times creating melancholic and/or macabre swirls of cognition. When Pale Chalice plays at full speed, the perception is one of victory, that an army of darkness has indeed beaten down any luminous combatants. The quality of sound production is in place, with a raw tinge that blankets the entire auditory experience.
What Afflicting the Dichotomy of Trepid Creation has shown my ears, is that Pale Chalice is a convincingly equipped, underground Black Metal outfit, that wants to prevail. It’s as if Pale Chalice is now biding their time before a debut full-length of their Blackened Metal is unleashed upon the world, that this EP is a worthy teaser. I’m relishing this piece of Blackened work for now… and I’ll be in front of the line when Pale Chalice turns loose that anticipated second round of their Black Metal art.
PALE CHALICE:
Oram Evad
Masthantric Nodrab
Baneist Nonrutin
Ephemeral Domignostika
Grobahn Huv
* For more info on Pale Chalice, click here: Pale Chalice – myspace music
* Pale Chalice has been a live supporting act for Watain and Goatwhore.
* Both a CD and digital release for Afflicting the Dichotomy of Trepid Creation is set for March 8, 2011, on The Flenser (Flenser Records).
* For more info on The Flenser, click here: FLENSER Records
Track Listing:
Transplant Of Dimensional Recourse
Command of the Formless
Caressed by a Feeble Flame
Ascend the idyllic Sphere
LONG LIVE PALE CHALICE.
Stone.
Metal Odyssey > Heavy Metal Music Blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.