A savage delivery of Death Metal or just pure chaos?
Hailing from Poland, Lost Soul comes bearing gifts of pure carnage and ear shattering chaos in the form of classic Death Metal. Their albums certainly bears an appropriate name, nothing about this album is misleading in terms of what the title may suggest for the music within can only be described as stream after stream of pure chaos. This, amongst other unconventional displays of complex arrangements, is sure to appeal to those who like their Death Metal larger than life and almost savage in its delivery.
However, as Death Metal goes this is rather disappointing. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot to be said for the guitaring and drumming talents in this band. Throughout the album, the listener is treated to a wickedly good serving of wild and untamed guitar riffs. With pull-offs and slides that could shatter the ears of even the most seasoned metal fans, the wonderfully vicious guitaring is guaranteed to cut through you like a scream through the air on a bitter cold winter's night. There is also a lot to be said for the drummer of the band, who drums with such speed and precision that I have to wonder if he hasn't had a heart attack or at least repetitive strain injury yet! The drummer does an exceedingly good job on keeping the rhythm and structure together between the instrumental part of the band, and once the bass joins in you get what can only be described as a beautifully satanic matrimony of sheer carnage.
However, there are pitfalls in their music and while they may only be few, they are unfortunately fatal. The vocalist is the main let down for the band. While exceptions can be made for the fact that he is a Death Metal vocalist, there is still very little melodic skill in his voice and he lacks the sheer power needed to rise above the unrivalled noise in the background. Contrary to belief, while requiring raw and gruff vocal sounds, Death Metal also relies on some sort of melodic quality in the vocal lines to stop the music falling completely into a form of unstructured noise, and this particular vocalist is unfortunately lacking in that department. The vocalist tends to stay at the same pitch almost all of the time and drags down the otherwise mystic and creative mood into mediocrity. The quality of the voice also grates on the ear like bare skin against a brick wall and for some reason strikes as being more irritating than aggressive and atmospheric. While a savage, raw blow is often the kind of sound most Death Metal bands seek to deliver, Lost Soul are lacking in that little something extra needed to make it ass the more aggressive. It is a shame to say that the vocals do let the band's overall wonderful sound down, because behind the mistakes and slip ups in vocal lines there is a lot of potential waiting to claw its way to the surface. However, it's going to take a lot more than just screaming and cursing to release it in this case.
Another, yet less obvious, let down of Lost Soul's music is that almost all of the tracks sound exactly the same, mostly kicking off with the same abrupt rhythm using staccato notes and pauses to pack that extra punch into their songs. They also tend to focus around using the same rhythm structure and time scale in all of their tracks. This tends to make the overall sound of the album generally dull and uninteresting. Again, this is a great shame because the listener would miss out on some delicious riffs and stunning displays of guitaring skills that pack all the goodness and dark tranquility that is expected of Death Metal. The instrumental section deliver all the raging comfort that any seasoned metal fan would crave but only if you get past the strangling sense of boredom that the vocals deliver and the similar, repetitive feel to almost the entirety of the album.
This isn't to say that Lost Soul are not a good band because as far as the theoretical and technical aspects go, Lost Soul are very much at the cutting edge of their genre. But, there is a certain something lacking in their sound that does tend to make them very difficult to listen to. Perhaps it may be that they are simply too complex with their display of talent. It may also be that they pack too much chaos into the mood of their songs, causing it to flood over with lethal sounds rather than simply leak slowly in. Whatever may be the case, Lost Soul do have excellent potential and do set the mind racing and the blood pumping as they claim but as a band, they still have a lot of growing to do. As far as "Chaostream" goes, there is perhaps a little too much carnage in this delivery of Death Metal then it can realistically handle.