Ever had that feeling of impending doom, not a sense of coming mishap but a really dark unrelenting carving up of all you survive your lives safely by. Well whether yes or no, Australian metallers Chud bring you its soundtrack through their unbridled savagery that is debut album Ominous. It is a monster of a release, a collection of tracks and sounds with teeth that tear senses, emotions, and soul asunder whilst taunting them with insidious grooves and even at times melodies that are pure sonic acidity.
The metallic scavenging of one Whiskey Jones, who also leads the equally carnivorous industrial metal beast The DevilzWork, Chud is a confrontation that takes no prisoners but at the same time has an underlying seduction and simplicity of groove that is just irresistible. It is not always easy to find but throughout the release hooks and addiction forging aspects do make their deceptive play within the raw surface abrasion. Because of the guitar style and ferocious riffing of Jones there is a firm link between both of his bands, though they also stand distinctly apart, his other project having no time for anything other than primal filth clad temptation whereas Chud has a mellower heart, well maybe stalks with a slightly less predacious and more measured sonic tempting. Ominous is an inescapable storm but one you just want to be in the middle of, devouring all of its toxic animosity.
Opener Daemonic (Gnosis) tells you all you need to know about the album, the rhythmic torrent of crippling spite and the flesh chewing heavy riffs of guitar and bass a carnal consumption. Ridden by the caustic scowling vocals of Jones, his tones a senses stripping scourge, the track has its jaws firmly clasped around the mental throat from its first second and even the arrival of a slight swing and swagger to its suffocating body cannot lessen its staggering rabidity. It is a thrilling start immediately match by the similarly rapacious Choke and surpassed by the destructive Beast. The first of the two submits another artillery of rhythms within a sonic sandstorm, its prowling parade of lethal malevolence speared by harsh melodic flames from the guitar. It is close in presence to its predecessor but has enough to be a companion rather than an imitator whilst the second of the two is simply a crawling pestilence with the sinister seduction of Rob Zombie and contagion of Ministry. Whereas the earlier tracks were straight vicious metal that would find a mutual conspirator in a Devildriver or Brujeria, there is an industrial edge and melodic death metal stare to its voice.
Through the likes of the sonic abrasion Witchcraft and the envenomed despoiler Tyrant the album continues to isolate and scorch 
synapses whilst flesh is torn from any resemblance of safety though the excellent Marilyn Mansion flavoured Gauss brings much needed respite through vibrant steel girded grooves and a permeating emotive malady. Like so many of the tracks there is a repetition throughout the riffs, grooves , and hooks that badger and persuade with virulently contagious success, their irrepressible cruelty enslaving the passions so perpetual returns to its violent mouth are an unavoidable given.
The barbarous Revenant leads to another infection fuelled rancor setting up the already enflamed hunger for another pinnacle of the album in the demonically sculpted Serpentine, a track which flicks at and licks the listener with a poison coated tongue and scornful persistence. It is another striding sonic defiler but one offering an eastern mystique to its intrigue and exotic vehemence. Split by the mordant Pronto, another major highlight appears in the tyrannical sonic enticement of Kill It. Holding again an industrial/horror rock lilt to its edacious metal bred ferocity, the track is like a pack of predators not seeing food for longer than bearable and just as wild in its onslaught.
The sonic carnivore is completed by firstly the lumbering weight of Gravedigger, yet again that Manson/Zombie essence gracing the heavily burdened riffs, thumping rhythms, and melodic whispering. Its impressive bulk is then followed by the instrumental The Gift Of Fire, a track which fuses blues and southern rock with another climate of Eastern breezes all through the impressive lone guitar of Jones within a waiting shadowed ambience, and finally Angelic (Gnosis), the bestial ruinous epilogue to it all.
Though there is a surface constant to the sound of the songs mainly through the distinct playing of Jones, a turn of extra concentrated work reveals the uniqueness of songs but you do have to make that extra effort. Ominous is a thrilling primitively tasting treat, and one which is sure to see Chud laying waste to many more unsuspecting victims.
https://www.facebook.com/chudmetal
8.5/10
RingMaster 02/08/2013
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