Warthur Melana Chasmata continues the tradition Tom Warrior has maintained throughout the Triptykon project (and its precursor in the brief Celtic Frost revival that yielded Monotheist) of visiting a wide range of extreme metal styles over the course of an album without ever quite becoming entrapped in any one, blending them all together in a unique blend. This time around, the centre of gravity seems to be a bit more towards the doom and gothic metal side of the spectrum and less so towards the black and death metal that its predecessor incorporated - though all four styles appear this time just as they had their turn last. Black Snow is a fascinating epic, and the closing Waiting provides a melancholy and uncharacteristically gentle exit and one of the more gothic moments in the band's back catalogue.

UMUR "Melana Chasmata" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swiss extreme metal act Triptykon. The album was released through Century Media Records in April 2014. "Melana Chasmata" features the same lineup, who recorded the band´s debut full-length studio album "Eparistera Daimones (2010)". There was always internal strife in bandleader Tom G. Warrior´s longtime act Celtic Frost (which was also what triggered their demise), so I´m sure it´s a great relief to him, that Triptykon (at least from the outside looking in) feels like a more tight nit unit.

Stylistically the music on "Melana Chasmata" more or less continues down the same extreme metal style that the band initiated on "Eparistera Daimones (2010)". It´s a combination of elements from doom, thrash, black, death, and goth metal, that you can´t really label neither. Therefore the "extreme metal" tag is probably the most valid here.

The music on the album is crushingly heavy, featuring meaty riffs, dark lead themes, rumbling distorted bass, heavy beats and a varity of vocal styles, ranging from aggressive death/thrash vocals, to sneering black metal type vocals, to goth spoken vocals, to female singing. It´s also very dark and atmospheric music, so all in all there is a good level of diversity on the album. The sound production is powerful, raw and organic. A very impressive sound production, which suits the music perfectly. I´m especially fond of the thick and menacing guitar tone and the ultra heavy bass, but the organic sounding drums and the well sounding vocal production are also great assets.

The material are generally very well written, effective and delivered with great passion and conviction by a cast of skilled performers. However one of the greatest strengths of "Melana Chasmata" is the diversity of the material. The thrashy and aggressive "Tree of Suffocation Souls" and "Breathing", The ultra heavy "Altar of Deceit" and "Black Snow" and the atmospheric and goth tinged "Boleskine House", "Aurorae" and "Waiting" are good examples of how varied the album is.

It´s not always a combination of so many stylistic elements works wonders, but Triptykon make it sound natural and as if they are completely at ease with what they do. And don´t misunderstand that as if they´ve lost bite or aggression as a consequence of how sure of themselves they sound. They deliver their music with fierce conviction. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.