Album Review: Chamber – A Love To Kill For (Pure Noise Records)

Rising Nashville metalcore agitators Chamber will return this summer with the release of their highly anticipated second full-length record, A Love to Kill For. It is due out July 14th, 2023, from Pure Noise Records.

The words ‘highly anticipated’ can often be overused but in this case, it makes complete sense. Chamber blew away a lot of listeners with their debut record and the hunger for this follow-up is at a feverish level.

With that clearly in mind, Chamber come out of the starting blocks with something immensely attention-grabbing. The self-titled opener is only 70-seconds long but is so erratic and intense, it feels like a mugging. Although, short and sharp hits are kind of what Chamber do and they quickly smash their way through a manic metalcore slice of brilliance in Retribution. Before their love of technical rhythms and brain-busting breakdowns reaches an impressive apex with At My Hands.

With the first three tracks of this mammoth release, Chamber have proven that the wait has been more than worth it. There’s so much more to come too!

With Tremble and To Die In The Grips Of Poison, Chamber pushes the hyper-speed button and sound even more chaotic here. A pair of brutal pit starters that will see the sweat flying. Whereas One Final Sacrifice has some of the album’s thickest riffs and most guttural vocals of all. Chamber continuing to dig down deep to pull out as much intensity as possible.

At only 13-seconds long, there’s not a lot to We Followed You To The Bitter End but Chamber still manage to slam in that brief amount of time. The same goes for the following Our Beauty Decayed, Nothing Was Left. Which is 25-seconds of stompiness.

Kublai Khan vocalist Matt Honeycutt joins Chamber for a frenzied metalcore hit called Devoured. A natural team-up that works wonders. Before When Deliverance Comes showcases a twisted mentality and drive to keep their sound fresh and interesting. Then along comes the 39-second Mirror to bulldoze through any order created from the previous track.

Finally, it’s the two longest tracks on the album, Cyanide Embrace and the title track. Two lavishly detailed efforts that find Chamber in both an experimental and focused mood. Pushing their capabilities to the extreme and demanding the same amount of effort from the listener. Something that is very easy to give when you have tracks with this much brash brilliance on show. So good a pairing are they, that the finale of Hopeless Portrait feels a bit redundant. Yet, it’s only 68-seconds long and in that time, Chamber still deliver frenetic speed and spirited heaviness.

Chamber – A Love to Kill For Track Listing:

1. Chamber
2. Retribution
3. At My Hands
4. Tremble
5. To Die In The Grips Of Poison
6. One Final Sacrifice
7. We Followed You To The Bitter End
8. Our Beauty Decayed, Nothing Was Left
9. Devoured (feat. Matt Honeycutt)
10. When Deliverance Comes
11. Mirror
12. Cyanide Embrace
13. A Love To Kill For
14. Hopeless Portrait

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