CHAOS THEORY – Whispers Of Doom

Readers from Australia might know this band already, to everybody else they should be completely new as Melbourne’s Chaos Theory sold out of a 500 copy demo called Aurora Twilight in 2005 only in the local scene. So relatively unexpected, this digipack album called Whispers Of Doom arrives. Equipped with a very intriguing cover painting of a futuristic skyline after a devastating air attack, along with Doomtroopers, Space Marines, or whatever kind of menacing looking guys — one has to admit this is just a great, old-fashioned look for a Metal CD.

The excitement the picture raises is fortunately justified by the music the five guys and one lady (on keyboards; where else?) deliver. The line-up is a classic one with two guitars plus keyboards, and their style is also deeply rooted in Classic Metal — probably the most common ground of all Metal Express Radio listeners and readers. After a short, bombastic intro, the first song, “The Beginning Of The End,” sets the course for the whole album when fast Power Metal with twin guitars and a melodic singer immediately induces comparisons to Helloween and German or Scandinavian True Metal. Nicely done, and an overture for a galloping ride through eighties Metal, which develops more and more towards early Iron Maiden (somewhere between Killers and Somewhere In Time), reaching its climax with track 7, “All-Seeing Eye.” If Bruce Dickinson or Paul Di’Anno had sung this track, the world would cry out in excitement about this lost Maiden gem, yes, even the sound is similar to the releases mentioned above!

They display all the trademarks from dual guitar riffing to typical melodic choruses and their repertoire even contains a typical Maiden power ballad called “Voices Of The Holocaust“. The guitar work is in the top of the genre, and the vocals by Quiintus are remarkable, although at times a bit strained, something comparably similar to Bruce Dickinson’s performance on the last Maiden albums. In a few tracks the melody lines still are a bit too complicated, here Chaos Theory just wanted to impress too much, but apart from that every single track is pure fun. Even after weeks and months the album will not fail to excite old Metalheads.

So their musical influences are crystal clear, and fittingly for the production, they chose Endel Rivers who also produced Eyefear, Black Majesty, and Vanishing Point, and who probably only pushed them into the same direction they were already going and created a sound that is adequate, although obviously not too expensive.

The whole thing has one problem, though … the album seems not to be released at all yet! The last entry on the band’s Web page says they were looking for a label to release Whispers Of Doom, so it may be difficult to get your hands on a copy of the album. For the time being, Chaos Theory has one song called “Chemical Wraith” on their website as a free .mp3 download so everybody can get a taste of their Doom. Or, of course, you can request to hear many of the songs from the album on Metal Express Radio!

If you are still not convinced, here is a list of references that all can be found somewhere in the 60 minutes of Whispers Of Doom:

Iron Maiden, Queensrÿche, Helloween, Iron Maiden, Grave Digger, Iron Maiden, Siam, Sonata Arctica, Iron Maiden, Gamma Ray, Iron Maiden, Iced Earth, Falconer, Iron Maiden, Fifth Angel, Iron Maiden, Heavy Load, Running Wild, Iron Maiden and Iron Maiden.