Chaos Over Cosmos - The Hypercosmic Paradox (2025)

 

The Polish prog metal project Chaos Over Cosmos started out as a power metal band, which had ambitious song structures and neoclassical form since its first release. Changing multiple vocalists while only keeping the original member instrumentalist Rafał Bowman, the band soon turned to a more brutalist interpretation of Necrophagist and Obscura's prog/tech death sound. There were minor detours on the way towards metalcore, ambient and drum-and-bass, but the main direction was clear. The galloping riffs were replaced by more abstract melodies, the upbeat drums turned into an unbudging wall of blastbeats, and the clean vocals went through different variations of harsh ones in screeches, rasps, or processed growls, depending on the current vocalist. Chaos Over Cosmos had already switched to this style by their second album, but with each following release, the overall sound became more consistent, without the tonal whiplash of tense and weirdly upbeat sections, leading to "The Hypercosmic Paradox", which is a short but focused album.

I'd describe "The Hypercosmic Paradox" as impatient and youthful - the four main tracks overflow with multi-act solos and lightning-fast leads with syncopated rhythm guitar underneath. Riffs and leads often last as little as 10-12 seconds before changing key or switching to a brand new riff. Programmed blastbeats and very fast double bass fill out every remaining crevice and only break that pattern for the more mid-paced syncopated riffs. Despite that, this album isn't as intimidating as it may sound at first. Even if the playing speed obscures it somewhat, the underlying melodies are rather accessible, as a lot of them are effectively sped-up melodeath riffs with very consistent momentum, made of low rhythmic chugs and ornate high flourishes. The riffs' contour trends up - either the high notes gather mostly in the second halves of measures and phrases, or a full riff simply ends with a short sweep across the upper strings. In that way riffs and leads end on a higher pitch than they start on before repeating. The slower rhythm guitar and occasional synths counterpoint the busy leads, and because they're constantly uptempo, low and high notes shift without pause, keeping very high energy throughout. 1:32 on "When the Void Laughs" and 3:23 on "Event Horizon Rebirth" are great examples of these types of riffs.

Short synth parts interject every now and then, or overlay and counterpoint the guitar. The midrange-heavy production isn't quite pristine, and the guitar tone comes out somewhat mushy, like it would have been produced in the 2000's, but that and the synthesizers give the album a retro-futuristic charm. These fairly modest production values don't detract from the long, triumphant solos, instead, they give a sense of groundedness even during the loftiest scale runs. Some of these solos seem to go on endlessly, long enough to be almost standalone compositions in their own right. Just when they should have reached a definite conclusion, they instead continue to shred at full power, fueled by the same youthful energy that overloads every other aspect of this album. However, there is also drama and dread in the music, more focused towards the end of the album, but heard on earlier tracks as well. Short looping phrases act as leads and build-ups - 1:10 on "Nostalgia for Something That Never Happened" and the intro of "When the Void Laughs" (this intro transitions into a recurring riff) sound tense and urgent, as if the chords change just slightly too early. Solos often start by reiterating and developing individual phrases, which is common enough in metal by itself, but heard next to the short leads, the line between solo and riff becomes blurred. This approach reminds me of Decrepit Birth - many of that band's motifs could comfortably serve both roles, and some of them reappeared as both riffs and introductions to solos throughout the same song.

Each main track has many ideas for its length but also starts off restrained, either with less busy arrangements or by introducing new elements more sparsely, before ramping up around one third of its runtime, eventually returning to early motifs near the end. "The Cosmo-Agony: Requiem" starts with a very minimal intro before blasting off at full speed with a two-solo overture, eventually cooling off for its main section. That track also has a greater sense of gravity - there is a more dissonant harmony under the very first solo, and the tonality is darkened compared to the other tracks, with phrases often ending on ambiguous notes. As two examples, at 1:17 and 6:18 the current solos finish abruptly without real closure, which doesn't happen earlier in the album.

I did describe the album as impatient in its hyperactivity, but I also hear actual impatience with how much less attention seems to have been put into the drums. They are almost always locked in a stiff beat and pale in comparison to the passion poured into the guitar - it's a big missed opportunity for interplay between instruments. The drums are quite compressed too and sound small and tucked below everything else, unless they do blastbeats with the ride cymbal on top, which gives each snare hit better definition. The rhythm guitar chugs along for most of the runtime, but it does so as support under the lead. Only in the first minute of the opener track is there a stereotypical breakdown. Perhaps in a self-conscious manner, the band included it to hook more casual listeners. The snippets of nimble synth rhythms or ambient pads in between are almost always too short and inconsequential to add or subtract anything. It's a strange choice to end on the soft drum-and-bass outro of "The Fractal Mechanism" after the cosmic weight of "The Cosmo-Agony". Only the intro to "The Cosmo-Agony" felt warranted as a moment for reflection before the final chapter.

"The Hypercosmic Paradox" bursts at the seams with ideas, most of which Rafał Bowman channels into a purpose by crafting an emotional arc that spans the album's whole runtime. However, that arc can be easily lost in the loud presentation, and the musical effort is unevenly divided between the excellent guitar parts and underwhelming support instruments. It comes down to how open you are to the virtuoso-centric style.