Chariots of the Gods: Tides of War

I haven't been to Ottawa, Ontario in over twenty years, but if I were to go back it would be to check out Chariots of the Gods. For those of you in the area, I'd recommend putting these guys on your radar and discovering what they have to offer. If they are as good live as they sound on this album, you are certainly in for a treat. Tides of War, their debut album, is a strong and aggressive release that needs to find a large body of listeners.

The band describes their music as "melodic death thrash." Normally, I would take issue with such a grab-bag description; these days, everyone wants to blend as many genres as possible in an attempt to discover something new. Sometimes it's worth doing; other times, it isn't. To my ears, Chariots of the Gods blends each style skillfully. The band members seem to have genuine talent and a real hunger for creating solid metal music. I was a little surprised they didn't add the word "core" to their description since there's a pretty healthy dose of metalcore here, especially in the rhythms and drum patterns. In any event, Chariots of the Gods sounds great. Musically, they aren't trying to press themselves too far out of comfortable bounds; instead, they've come to demonstrated strong songwriting ability, technical proficiency, and a terrific blend of aggression and melody. Even better, the album is fun to listen to as a whole, something that isn't as true these days as it was in the past. Be sure to check out the three song sequence in the middle of the album. You'll know it from the dates after each song title. I would love to know more about what inspired this trilogy of songs.

The best thing about this band, in my view, is the powerful melodic style they bring to each song. The guitarists are especially strong on several tracks, including "Tides of War," "Revillusion (1905)," and "Unbound." I loved the instrumental track "Snow Falls on the White River (1914)," yet another piece of evidence that these guys have a keen sense of melody, at times, one that even approaches beauty. Mathiew St-Amour and Dimitri Gervais play their guitars with grace and precision and sound especially great on their harmonized parts. These guys have a bright future as twin guitar leads and I hope they'll take advantage of what they can do together. Readers who like their guitars to come in pairs will love this album.

I was impressed to find out that St-Amour, with a couple of small exceptions, wrote the music and lyrics for this album. He has genuine talent and is lucky to have such a strong group of band mates playing with him. His lyrics, which I only browsed briefly, are clearly intelligent and interesting, engaging with difficult themes of war, bloodshed, and worldly conditions. There's also a strong amount of fantasy themes mixed in here that drew my attention. I am going to keep my eye on these guys. This one is definitely worth a listen.

Track Listing:
1. Overture
2. Seventh Weapon
3. Blind Assassin
4. Tides of War
5. Ambrosian Wings
6. Revillusion (1905)
7. Snow Falls on the White River (1914)
8. Severing the Bloodline (1917)
9. Collapse of an Empire
10. Red Skies
11. Nebula
12. Starborn
13. Unbound
14. Annihilation of the Gods

Added: January 25th 2013
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 2414
Language: english

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