Artist: Chalice Of Eden
Country: USA
Label: Self-Released
Formats: Digital Demo
Year: 2025
Fallen Warrior is a musician that seems to have difficulties with using a compass. A musical one, that is. Or simply a person who is very indecisive and capricious. With a total of nine demos released in a very short period of time under both the Chalice Of Eden and Occult Mountain names, he can also be called very productive, but it has become difficult to find any consistency or connection in his work. Although all nine demos are very good and fall within the boundaries of raw yet atmospheric Black Metal, perhaps the only conclusion is that he might as well release all his music under one name: it all sounds quite different from each other anyway.
This is also the case with this fourth Chalice Of Eden demo. I previously detected some fragments of Black Cilice in the music, but on the last demo, ‘The Essence Of Imperial Blood’, the sound actually leaned more towards Moonblood, Drowning The Light and old Nargaroth. On this latest work, apart from the raw production, there is little left of Black Cilice, while Moonblood and Drowning The Light are still very much present. However, the whole thing now also resembles the deepest regions of the Polish Black Metal scene of the 1990s. Especially now that the keyboards have become an integral part of the music, a slight musical affinity with a band like Veles is not so far-fetched. But regardless of what you hear or what your preference is, one thing about Chalice Of Eden (and Occult Mountain for that matter) is very clear: Fallen Warrior is a gifted musician who absolutely knows how to write exciting music. That it may be a bit all over the place, I am happy to accept in this case.
