CHAOS ECHOES are a death/doom/black metal band from France, harnessing abstract elements in their sound. Having released their first album "Transient" in 2015, the band has been working to create another worthy follow-up, dubbed "Mouvement", to be released Feb the 15^th this year. The band claim some changes to be expected in this release - "The band describe the inspiration as 'to move towards a form of simplicity and immediacy, and to propose a music that is still focused on spirituality, but where Transient was focused on introspection and the individual.'"

The first track, "Embodied by Perfidious Curls in the Innervated Flux" crashes in with grainy guitar chords, with the sounds of rustic cymbals and drum blast beats. Timing is mechanically disjointed and unpredictable. I found "As an Embraceable Magma Leading the Subliminal" to be like the background of a dystopian landscape. There is enough space to hear the riff of the bass, playing a dark yet funky riff, along with jazzy drums. Although the atmosphere is still uneasy, it is hard to define the genre of the music at this point. Sustained guitar sounds and experimental effects create a metallic, odd, soundscape, that stretch out even further towards the end of the song.

"Surrounded and Amazed by These Unplumbed Abysses of the Inverted Sea" begins with a heavier impact than the previous track, with thuds of bass and low-tone guitars. It is followed by odd sounding strings, and what sounds like a broken piano, echoing out, fluently merging in the background. These themes repeat throughout the song, without any seemingly logical sequence.

"Through Kaleidoscopic Haze of Unexpected Extents" brings forth an intricately complex rhythm on the drums, sounding somewhat inverted in sequence and pattern. This takes center stage upon a drone of deep guitar gurgles.  The use of the ride cymbal sheds some light into the foggy space that the sustained echoes of the guitars build up.

"Shine On, Obsidian! Ego! Ego! Echo Back to the Yearning of the Self!" is even heavier, with catchy, thrashy deep guitar and bass rhythms at the start. The whole structure evolves into increasingly greasy, dirty and chaotic tones. Blast beats alter the rhythm and feeling of movement, as snare drum rolls increase the sense of chaos. The final, sixth song "Alas! Here Is the Feebles' Assent, Exalted by Your Mouth Full of Flies" is enough to leave you perplexed, through its experimentation of odd sound samples, such as voices that sound distant, or underwater.

I found CHAOS ECHOES to provide a tense yet refreshing experience in their release "Movement". Due to the unusual style of the music, it had taken me a while to get into this, and tune my ear to it. But once I did, it really sucked me in to its mysterious, unique atmosphere. Conventional formulas are rejected in this music, which can make for an interesting listen. I can see why it may have been called "Movement", as many different rhythms and undulating patterns arise out of the sound. Together, the band venture beyond the typical set up of drums, guitar and bass, integrating mysterious soundscapes. To me, the music sounds almost instrumentational, even though there are vocals, though they are more used as effects in the background. The chaotic vibes that can ensue in their experimentation also matches the band name CHAOS ECHOES.