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Cholera: Prophecies of annihilation
06/06/11 || cadenz
Two-piece Cholera from Canada’s capital Ottawa have made a progressive death metal album that is quite unique. “Prophecies of Annihilation”, their debut full-length, is one monster of a creation that spans over several genres and moves from atmosphere to atmosphere as seamlessly as if it was alive, an organic being prowling its natural environment.
So what does this beast consist of, then? Well…harsh death metal riffs, blastbeats, atmospheric keyboards, hoarse growls, unexpected breaks, melodic clean vocals, shredding, thrash bashing, odd time signatures…there’s something for everyone in here. With that and track lengths between 9:24 and 18:23 (!) in mind, one could think that “Prophecies of Annihilation” is one big mess. Like a painting where you throw in every color you can find, and in the end the mix you get is a bland grey. Not the case with Cholera. No fucken way, these ‘nucks are smarter than that. Ralph & Matt-san have managed to keep a red thread audible throughout the mastodontic songs, by not leaning too heavily on immediate hooks or catchiness. Instead they’ve concentrated on creating and preserving an atmosphere, and evolving it into an onwards-driving momentum by using both subtle and abrupt twists and turns.
The technicality and progressiveness, and especially some of the keyboard-induced parts bring Nocturnus to mind, as does the omnipresent Runemagick-ean dark atmosphere that sounds somehow…ancient. It’s like these tracks come from aeons afar, when there were no streamlined song structures or genre boundaries. If you can fit in oriental melodies, meaty death pounding, piano interludes, blastbeats, Opeth-esque clean guitar arpeggios and clean vocals into the same track without making it sound schizo like fuck – you know what the fuck you’re doing.
The production is quite muddy and unclear (this is, after all, a self-released album) and some instruments sound a little off. The drums, for example, lack power and depth and the guitars aren’t as solid as one could hope. All of these things do their part, however, in creating a decidedly unique atmosphere that you won’t find anywhere else. The instrumental performances are very very good, if not mind-blowing.
All in all I can safely say that “Prophecies of Annihilation” is quite the exceptional album. I’ve never heard anything like it, and I’m sure I never will, again. Cholera produce, unlike many other bands of today, genuine music. I’m glad that some people still get the idea behind art. If you like progressive death metal, or death metal with a dark atmosphere, or good music regardless of genre, you should check this out – pronto.
- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Self-released
- Website: Cholera MySpace
- Band
- Ralph Weinroth-Browne: vocals, guitars, drums, keyboards, oud
- Matt Buller: bass, vocals
- Tracklist
- 01. Road Into the Fire
- 02. Enslaved Humanity
- 03. The Lost Traveler
- 04. Reminiscence
- 05. Prophecies of Annihilation
