This album just came out of nowhere, a debut from a Philadelphia based avant-garde death metal band that ended up being released by the Czech

label Epidemie, and it's a real brain-scrambler. I'm having a hard time coming up with another death metal album that's as batshit nuts as

Chronicles is, which saying alot considering the types of stuff that we get in here. Azure Emote is the brainchild of Mike Hrubovcak, a member of

the established death metal bands Monstrosity, Vile, and Divine Rapture. With this project though, Hrubovcak blasts off far from anything remotely

recognizeable as standard death metal; the insanely complex songs that make up this album are constructed using obsessive digital editing, and any single

track is woven from stuttering death metal riffage, advanced IDM rhythms, lush electronic ambience, a myriad of samples, all put together into crazily

intricate compositions. A range of vocal styles are used, from gutteral death grunts to a deep David Bowie croon, and the ethereal singing of Laurie Ann

Hause (Autumn Tears, Rain Fell Within) shows up throughout the album. And as complex and confusing as Azure Emote's digital death tapestry becomes, the hooks

are MASSIVE, total melodic death metal currents flowing through Chronicles...' glitchy landscape. "Procreation Abnegation" is one of sickest songs

on here, hyperactively fusing an awesome epic death metal riff to abstract electronica rhythms, layers of freaked out vocals, synth/beats ripped right out of

a John Carpenter film score, slow doomy heaviness, heavenly female singing....the whole album rules though, the sampling and programming is as advanced as

what Genghis Tron are doing, and the heavier electronic rhythms and textures are in league with bands like Limbonic Art, The Kovenant, Dodheimsgard and Red

Harvest. It's death metal rendered through the lens of Autechre and Squarepusher in a mindblowingly surreal masterwork.