26th July 2022

Review: “Stories Untold (Chapter I)” by Whispers In The Maze

“As implied in the title, Stories Untold: Chapter I is mostly a collection of older songs written by previous line ups of Whispers In The Maze. For example, the track Ink is a re-recording of the first demo we ever put out. The exception would be Poisoning Imagination, which was composed more recently by the band in its present form. Chapter I also implies the existence of a Chapter II, which is still in the works at this time. We decided to split Stories Untold into two halves so we could release new material sooner rather than later” ~ Whispers In The Maze

The subliminal voices suggest that it may have been a long, hard road out of Ottawa Ontario Canada for Whispers In The Maze, a Metal band who describe themselves as being without borders, who work as one to create a musical blend of the heavy, the melodic, the progressive and the poetic. Formed in 2016, the band dropped EP “Threads Unbind” in the summer of 2019, however line up issues appear to have left them with a collection of songs partially written by former vocalist Marc Alain Bonenfant and well as Amaury Lavoine, Patrick Kuhn and Zacharie Charest which are released here to turn the page on that chapter of the bands career. Stories Untold: Chapter I is Whispers In The Maze’s first recording where guitarist Emine Topcu and bassist Benjamin Bertrand are sharing lead vocal duties, the group rounded out by guitarist Vitto “Oh” Ortori and drummer Mike Berrigan.

Maintaining perpetual forward motion, Whispers In The Maze put their best foot forward with the entirely new cut “Poisoning Imagination” which showcases not only where the collective are now but also where they could be when Chapter 2 arrives. A fierce throat splitting vocal performance from the twin headed fire breathing dragon over Technical Progressive Melodic Death Metal is an absolute pleasure, the oriental nuances in the riff department totally unexpected and equally stunning. Expertly recorded, mixed and mastered by Dave Sarazin, the drum sound is particularly good, clean and crisp to push the dynamic that little bit further and the overall result is an absolute triumph of high energy, incendiary madness. A re-recording the bands 2017 demo “INK“, a cut heavy on the bass with soaring melodies and brutal unclean vocals, it’s another powerhouse and has a timeless quality which means it hasn’t aged in the past five years and very much sounds in keeping with the cuts that appear on the EP. The decision to stick to the bands style and avoid the beauty and beast clean and unclean dynamic here is a masterstroke, instead the mixture of death growls and blackened shrieks that intertwine offers something that stands out for very different reasons. “Chained Till The Grave” finds the band firing on all cylinders, breaking only for a short one line of spoken word as they destroy the ear drums while also having time to shoehorn in a breakdown before piling on the extended tapping section, that breaks into a blood curdlingly scream. There is a clean vocal moment in “Behind Your Eyes“, but it’s subdued nature means it doesn’t take away from the music, instead it finds Emine Topcu reminding of Hole vocalist Courtney Love so here it fits the mood of the theme of schizophrenia behind the eyes with style, grace and capitivating fashion. Whispers In The Maze have got us caught, hook, line and sinker so bring on Chapter II [7.5/10]

Track Listing