UMUR
Chronicles is the debut and for now sole full-length studio album by Danish death metal act Cyborg. Cyborg was originally a project act formed by members of Danish death metal act Detest. Chronicles was released in February 1996 through the Die Hard label.
The music on Chronicles is a mix of mid-paced death metal and groove thrash not terribly different from the style on the Spit or Swallow (1995) album by the more prolific Danish death metal act Konkhra. I hear obvious references to the Danish thrash metal act Invocator and their Weave The Apocalypse (1993) and Dying To Live (1995) albums too. There are 8 tracks on the 29:41 minute long/ short album. The music and the lyrics are sci-fi themed. The quality of the material is as such solid but overall Chronicles is a very standard album without anything that stands out as unique. I had expected some great dark atmosphere as a result of the sci-fi theme, and the effects like spoken passages and sound effects lead the right way. They are never really convincing though. The musicianship is overall pretty good. I´m not too fond of the growling vocals but the raw thrash vocals are really good.
The production is good, but again nothing above average.
So overall Chronicles is a solid 3 star album, that unfortunately never rises above the mediocre. Chronicles is the epitome of why many Danish death and thrash metal acts from the nineties never crossed the borders of Denmark and are almost completely forgotten about today. Many releases simply never rose above mediocrity.