CHASMA: "Declarations of the Grand Artificer"

[ 2 / 5 ] American post-rock guys playing black metal influenced by who else than of course Wolves in the Throne Room rings certain bells of suspicion and considering how precisely the music on their debut Declarations of the Grand Artificer falls to the certain patterns of modern USBM, I am not really convinced. Long songs, despondent atmosphere where atonality meets melancholy, executed with a lot of tremolo and blast beats and some harsh screams on top did work well on the previously mentioned band's first albums Diadem of 12 Stars and Two Hunters, but when these elements are later carried into a stale pastiche that is Declarations of the Grand Artificer, I don't see much worth in it I'm afraid. They know their ways around their instruments and how to build some dynamics via quieter plucked sections that then burst into distorted seas of tremolo, but none of the melodies seem to really stand out. Hence I'd choose a Fen album over this any day of the month, but the most diehard followers of the current US wave might find this album more fruitful than yours truly, an annoying old-fashioned critic who knows nothing of the importance of progression within black metal and bla bla...