Artist: Chalice Of Eden
Country: USA
Label: Self-Released
Formats: Digital Demo
Year: 2025
‘The Black Serpents Lament’ is the first demo of a new entity roaming the North American Raw Black Metal realms. Within its ranks we find Fallen Warrior, who already left a certain impression on me with his two highly enjoyable keyboard-driven Black Metal demos with Occult Mountain. For this new band he has found the help of Noxfunus on drums, but that’s not the main difference between Chalice Of Eden and Fallen Warrior’s other musical endeavors…
Probably the most appealing aspect of Occult Mountain’s take on the Black Metal genre is the way the heavy use of keyboards is woven throughout the full ride, that’s particularly the case with the first demo. In the process, the music has a strong and undeniable late 90’s/early 00’s vibe to it. The same can be said about this first offering of Chalice Of Eden, but for completely opposite reasons.
The use of keyboards is mostly or even completely reserved for this demo’s intro and outro. The three tracks that form the main part of the demo are, without question, to be positioned within the harsher and rawer regions of the Black Metal genre. It greatly reminds me of the earliest works of Black Cilice and, to a slightly lesser extent, Candelabrum. Consequently, the music is best described as a captivating blend of Polish, French and early American Black Metal: slightly chaotic, heavily distorted guitars and vocals and, as a whole, brimming with a sinister atmosphere.
If we leave aside the keyboard parts at the beginning and end of the demo, ‘The Black Serpents Lament’ is only about ten minutes long. Maybe not that much, but when things are done right, these few minutes can be enough to convince. And that is certainly the case here. With Occult Mountain Fallen Warrior already showed a certain sense for song writing, tension, dynamics, atmosphere and the overall Black Metal aesthetics. He does so again with Chalice Of Eden, with which he offers an honest and nostalgic trip to times gone by with ‘The Black Serpents Lament’.
