Artist: Chamber Of Unlight
Country: Finland
Label: Werewolf Records
Formats: CD single
Year: 2023
The 2021 debut album of Chamber of Unlight was quite a hammer blow. The Finnish band was started by Necrosis (Ajatarra, Deathchain, Chaosweaver) and later shaped into a trio by the addition of Leper (The Undivine, Unknown Subject, Woland), and Kassara (otherwise known as LRH of Bythos, Deathchain, Horna and Trollheims Grott). Combining all their experience, they channeled their adoration of symphonic Norwegian Black Metal albums such as ‘In the Nightside Eclipse’ by Emperor and ‘In Times Before the Light’ by Covenant into a tremendous debut. Since then, the band has expanded to a six-piece, adding the three live members Infection (Ajattara, Behexen, Horna, Bythos) on guitars, VnoM (Horna, Phelgein, True Black Dawn, Ymir) on bass and Spellgoth (Horna, Trollheims Grott) on keyboards to the line-up. And that’s not the only news. Their debut album ‘Realm of the Night’ has just been repressed on vinyl but more importantly, there is new material. As with Satanic Warmaster and Vargrav, Werewolf Records presents a teaser of the upcoming Chamber of Unlight album in the shape of a CD single, in this case titled ‘One with the One’.
Available in 300 physical copies as well as digitally, the single contains two tracks. ‘One with the One’ is a song that largely follows along the same lines of the debut. The most obvious twist is that the haunting keyboards feature slightly more prominently in the mix than on the debut. Otherwise, it’s one of the more relentless and menacing songs so far, comparable to for instance ‘From Grey Tombs’ and ‘On the Path of Thy Shadow’ off the debut. Besides the enhanced atmosphere and overall furious pace, some midtempo Heavy Metal riffing and low pace strumming all add to the dynamics of the song. The vocal performance is once again stellar, with the vocal lines even having an almost enchanting quality to them. With a sound that fits even better with the music, the new song shows the band even more comfortable with their formula and deliver their finest track to date and manage to raise the anticipation for the new album. Along with the new song, the physical edition of the single also contains a cover version of Emperor’s ‘Cosmic Keys to My Creations & Times’. That Chamber of Unlight modeled their material in part on the classic Emperor album ‘In the Nightside Eclipse’ was already evident, even more so as this cover song is part of their live set as well. But hearing both songs side by side makes it even more clear, and obviously it’s a great pick to include on the single. Taken together, a delicious appetizer with a great sounding new track, the new album can’t come soon enough!
