It’s hard to believe that Fall of Stasis has existed since 2014 and yet, not many people know about them. Based in Quebec city, their latest album has created quite a buzz in the last week of February. I might be a bit late to the party, but definitely did not want to miss this record. So, here I am, discussing “The Chronophagist” by Fall of Stasis.
The album opening track “Wilted Forests” begins with melancholic clean intro, with layers of Symphonic elements giving an essence of cinematic feeling, which directly bleeds into the intro track “Fall of Statis” - starting off with melodic guitar lines building up to technical yet catchy riffs. The keyboard accompanying in the background gives a grand pompous sense to the track. A lengthy track with a few instances of breakdowns and dynamic shifts like Arch Enemy, this track perfectly sets up the mood of the album.
“Drunken Howl” begins with heavy rhythms of guitars accompanied by the melody of folk instruments (I am not sure what exactly). With a lot of melodic catchy guitar riffs and the key changes, this one is for both blackened-death fans and prog nerds! A rather short track, “Baal Arise” showcases technical blast of powerful guitar riffs with blasting drums. The chorus features mesmerizing vocals which are gonna stay with the listener for a long time.
“Twilight Carnival” showcases some melodious acoustic playing in the intro, while randomly bleeding into blasting fast sections (I was literally like wtf!!! during this section) With chug based rhythms and guitar lead lines on top, this song had a hardcore vibe to it. I just can’t stop myself from comparing the insane highs of Jessica Dupre to that of Trevor Strnad (The Black Dalhia Murder) or Dicky Allen (Infant Annihilator). “The Last Waltz” is yet another track with a soulful guitar strumming intro, which carries forward the momentum of the song with more power. The vocal lines with its intense switching between the highs and the lows, bring so much emotion to the song - definitely my favorite track on the album.
The last two tracks of the album - “Swarm of Casualties” and “The Chronophagist” really shows what would it sound like if you combine sound of Fleshgod Apocalypse, Dimmu Borgir to that of Black Dalhia. The band definitely pushed themselves in terms of melody to brutality towards the closing minutes for an epic outro to the album.
“The Chronophagist” is a dense record with scattered influence from all-over the metal catalog - from channeling the black metal vocals to insane lows, from being technically proficient to being absolutely melodious with folk instruments - and throw in some hardcore and breakdowns too. Also, add a good production value on top of that. In short - Fall of Stasis provides a wide range of emotions with their musical proficiency through “The Chronophagist”. Definitely one of the best releases of February!
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Website: https://www.facebook.com/fallofstasis
Genre: Blackened Folk Metal
Worldwide Release: February 25th, 2022.
