CHRYSALIDE are THE REVELATION of this year.
It is not often that the veteran industrial label Dependent signs an album, months after it has been originally released in another territory. Actually, in the 14 year old history of the label, it has never happened at all. This hints that the new Dependent signing CHRYSALIDE must be something special, as the album had been released in France in late 2011 already.
Due to the extraordinary quality of the album “Don’t Be Scared – It’s About Life” CHRYSALIDE managed to launch a slow burning sleeperhits in France and soon found as rare US license partner, as well as Dependent now handling the rest of Europe. Additionally CHRYSALIDE is one of the very few bands that manage to project their harsh electronics and vocals onto stage in a believable manner that really does their music justice. No wonder they had the ability to play a handful of key shows in Germany even before the album was officially released.
The French trio CHRYSALIDE is an exception in the industrial genre, as they manage to combine elements of Hiphop and Dubstep with harsh and noisy industrial music and vocals. Although leaning onto pioneers like Skinny Puppy or Velvet Acid Christ, CHRYSALIDE manage to create a unique and believable wall of aggression on their record. Unlike their Canadian Inspiration the CHRYSALIDE sound is more based on drums, grooves and rhythmic guitar samples than on samples, strings and sequencing chaos. It becomes noticeable that there is a full generation separating the Young CHRYSALIDE from the likes of Skinny Puppy. Equipped with this heavy load of electronics drums, and distorted vocal mayhem.
But not only the sound design steers clear of simple categorizations, also the bands album topics of globalization, European economy, and the effect of a vicious financial market onto the yet helpless individual shows that CHRYSALIDE prefer their samples and lyrics way off the beaten path. Summarizing its qualities, “Don’t Be Scared – It’s About life” is not only a vindicating statement against preset sounds and old-school styles, but also a manifest of true musical and artistic authenticity.
CHRYSALIDE don’t look like one of the revelations in this scene in 2012, they are probably THE REVELATION of this year.
There will be two versions of “Don’t Be Scared – It’s About Life” on the Dependent label, a regular CD edition and a very limited Double-CD collectors edition, containing preciously unreleased bonus tracks.
