Chains Ov Beleth are one of the many projects that include Heolstor, formerly also known as Jarleth, and previously / currently active with e.g. Eald, Carcharoth (the Spanish one, evidently), Nazgul (the Spanish one, evidently), Uruk-Hai (the Spanish one, evidently), Cyhiriaeth (the Spanish one, evidently) etc. With this solo-outfit, Heolstor released a first album at the end of last decennium (Katabasis) (it was repressed on tape a while ago as well). In Winter 2014 he started recording the second album at the Athame Studio, and finally the result was mastered at the Khazad-Dûm Studio by Erun-Dagoth, who also runs Morbid Shrine Productions.
Christeos Chaos stands for quite a bizarre, uncomfortable and weird form of dissonant Post-oriented Black Metal, based on primal structures from the old styled current, yet expressed through post-modern elements of discordancy and eccentricity. Stylistically and conceptually this stuff trespasses the ‘average’ stuff, yet still the whole is rooted within the initial essence of the scene, with acts like Dark Funeral, Arckanum or even Wolves In The Throne Room coming to mind. Sometimes the stuff is rather catchy (like the Death-Rock riffing in Spirit Of Guidance), then again rather avant-gardist or post-satyricon’ish, arcturusian or vedbuensende’y, drawing elementary details from scenes like the Finnish, Greek or French one.
I did listen to Christeos Chaos a couple of times, but I am still not totally convinced about the elegance. For sure this stuff is quite attractive and exciting; I do not want to pretend any contradiction. But what I do miss is, that even after several listens, that I still do not have that ‘catchiness’, that specific conviction, that necessary persuasion that one might need nowadays. Despite quite excellent song writing, I am waiting for memorable experiences, but they do come not… It’s not that this album sucks, but Heolstor did come up with much more convincing material in the past, being under different monikers; but then again that is not but a personal (and therefor totally subjective) opinion, and being a ‘human’ reviewer I… Pfff, I’m wasting my time; here’s my final conclusion: quite cool stuff but ehh$gônrey2b7an2b indeed…