EP Review: Chapter 7
Remember the report on my night out at The Cave in Amsterdam last week? One of the bands I banged my head to was Chapter 7, a band of fellow Dutchmen from the southern city of Tilburg. Their bass player Bas, about that performance, said: “I believe we kind of were the evening’s softies”. That’s true. Of the four bands that played their material was the least heavy. But it was also among the best!
So, when I heard they were charging a staggering €2.- for their 4-song EP I didn’t need much thinking time: I’ll have one thank you! As usual it’s been my musical accompaniment on my hour’s drive to work in the last week, so I’m now well able to serve you my well-substantiated opinion on the band’s material.
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Being a Metal/Hard Rock/Alternative, or anything else above modern popular radio levels for that matter, in the Netherlands isn’t easy. The market is small and you can’t get any commercial air pay whatsoever. With that background I’m damned proud of all the good Metal material that’s being produced by all the Metal bands on the surface of our small piece of land. Chapter 7 is one of those bands, though it isn’t purely Metal, but overlapping with Rock too. Rock which, as you know now, is something we respect!
About the €2.- disc I gained that evening: it’s fuckin’ awesome and I mean that. It’s an investment I can highly recommend you make. The music is also something I highly advise against playing while you’re driving. It’s a good thing I know where all the speed cameras are or my end-of-year bonus would’ve been spent already, plus extra.
It’s difficult to put my finger on it though. Why is this so delicious? It’s not because it’s virtuoso ostentatious guitar frenzy, it’s not highly technical. It’s just GROOVY baby! With capital letters. The guitar play is richly enriched with dead-notes, accents and harmonics and covered in a thick gravy of “heavy”. That’s one thing at least.
The second thing is the bass and drumming work, of which I was able to soak in particularly much during their live performance in Amsterdam. Once again, the word I have to use is “rich”. It best covers the load. Bas plays his bass with a love for the game, like he really means it and Roland does the same on his drum kit, with fills and rolls all over the place.
And then there’s the third thing, which is a guy called Jeroen Bruers – have fun pronouncing that as a non-Dutch speaker – who has about the best non-death-growl vocals I’ve heard. His voice is low and raw and he alternates between clean singing, a sort of hybrid form, and an all-out grunt. All well balanced, well dosed.
In the review last week I already included a song called Rise. Listen to it if you haven’t already! Today I’ll include another song, just because it’s the one that I deem best of the four. It’s called Time is Now. What’s best about this song is the start of the chorus, specifically the vocals in rhythm with the rest: “Stay. On your highway. Hold the wheel and. Driving and driving and driving insane.” (At least that’s what I’m hearing.)
Come to think of it, there’s only one major downside to this EP. It’s duration! It’s only four songs and about 17 minutes, so I was able to hear the full thing nearly eight times a day in the last week. I only had it in the car for three days if I recall correctly, but that still makes 24 plays, after which it just about starts to wear off. Mind you though, how many bands do you know whose album you can play for 24 times in a row? It’ll be weeks of Chapter 7 if they ever come up with a full album!
All four tracks of the EP can be found on the band’s MySpace!
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