Self proclaimed ‘street mafia geek’ metal sextet Chronicles have been making waves over the past few years in the Midlands. Their brand of heavy metal draws from a variety of influences, with lyrical matter referencing comics, films and video games. The Measure, their third EP, is a brief, energetic affair showcasing a band with clear potential that has yet to truly begin forging their musical identity.
“Day vs Knight” opens up with a lone guitar intro effectively employing a delay effect, with booming tom drums and a plundering bass line soon joining the fray. It does a good job in building up the tension, which makes the sparse, riff-lite metalcore that follows that little bit more underwhelming. It is well done, and the tapping solo is great, but it’s a little on the unoriginal side. “Funboy” follows things up, slipping into turn of the century alt-metal territory, with a rhythmic, spitfire vocal delivery over syncopated riffs and kick drums. The bridge riff carries enough to groove to get the head banging, but like the preceding track it possesses little in the way of originality. Strike three occurs with closer “The Measure”, which reverts to the metalcore of the opener, although this time it’s in the vein of Gothenburg tinged acts. It’s certainly likely to draw comparisons with Killswitch Engage, if only for the soaring, powerful clean vocals, bearing an uncanny resemblance to those of Howard Jones. There’s also another brilliant solo to be found, wrapping up a good showing for dual axemen Drew Cargill and Thomas Larcombe.
Despite the evident lack of originality, there is a lot to like on The Measure. There’s a decent amount of versatility here, with different avenues explored on each of the three tracks. It’s a relatively bold move that shows Chronicles are unafraid to take chances. This also proves to be The Measure’s undoing however, as a lack of focus on one clear direction leaves their creative threads spread too thin, each track sounding derivative of their obvious influences. It sounds like the band is still trying to nail down their identity, but there is evidence that they’ve got the chops to write some great stuff whichever path they may choose to follow. It’ll be interesting to see whether they continue to show this much diversity on future releases, or whether they streamline their sound to develop their songs around a particular style. Whatever the future holds for Chronicles, it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on them to see how they evolve.
Rating: 3/5 – A solid effort that’s high on variety but short on originality.
Band links: Facebook
