Chordewa: Recast Gear For The Mindcraft Course

The clues are all there if you're prepared to piece them together...

A band name with a logo so over crafted that you can't quite read it (that'll be Black Metal then...), a sleeve image that's a bit spacey and a bit science fiction (that'll be Progressive Metal I take it...) and an album name, Recast Gear From The Mindcraft Course, so convoluted it has to come from an Eastern European band... check, check and check. A full house!

So yes, Chordewa are a Moldova based (gets out his metal map of the world and ticks off another country) Progressive Metal outfit as likely to tear your face off with growled gutturals and big, nasty howls of guitars, as they are turn on a sixpence and offer up sixteen time changes a second, as they crash from fret fraying forays to keyboard created chaos. It should be a garbled mess, it should sound like a band desperately trying to niche themselves into a new made up sub genre. And yet Chordewa make this, on paper, over the top nonsense into something believable and coherent. Singer Alex does a fine job jumping from bark to bite, his gripping growls as beguiling as his subtle soothing. However it is the utterly locked together interplay from Denis (guitar), Olga – she's the real star of this show – (keys) Constantin (drums) and Oleg (bass) which suddenly makes "The Spiral", "TranScope" and "Psyche In The Shell" as potent as they are.

Things do sometimes slip into Alt-Rock shenanigans, although merely adding a new string to their bow, it's done well, while the introduction to the aforementioned "TranScope" does reveal that this outfit haven't always quit found the balance between captivating their audience and simply showing off (let's not add Jazz Fusion to the list lads and lady); drummer Constantin illustrating his extensive talents in an overly technical manner for no other reason than, because he can.

Falling firmly into the "it shouldn't work, but by Jove they've only gone and done it" category, Chordewa are an act who gleefully push boundaries and do it in style. Yet, I'm not 100% sure that either the Prog Metal crowd, or the Extreme Metal brigade will truly embrace this lot. Time will tell I suppose and we should wish them well.

Track Listing
1. Psyche in the Shell
2. Mindcraft Course
3. The Spiral
4. TransScope
5. My Abstract Kinetic
6. Agonist

Added: December 1st 2014
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Chordewa on facebook
Hits: 2409
Language: english

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