There’s a point in the evolution of metal bands where they either learn to harness their power or completely lose their way. For every Slayer, there are hundreds of Hollows Eve. Two albums into their career San Francisco’s Black Cobra could have gone either way. Their debut, 2005′s Bestial from At A Loss Recordings, was a brutal slab of aggression and blistering, patchwork riffs that felt more like a framework than a fully realized album.

The follow up, 2007′s short Feather and Stone (also on At A Loss), moved their sound a bit forward, but still left me wondering if they could get passed merely trying to rip the flesh off my face through pure force. Fortunately, Black Cobra have found their sweet spot on their third release, and first on Southern Lord, Chronomega. Without losing their unrelenting heaviness, Black Cobra have added a little finesse to their flesh ripping ways.

For metal bands, maturing doesn’t simply mean slowing down. Metallica found themselves on Master of Puppets by churning out epic, riff heavy tunes played with machine like precision. Slayer’s coming out, Reign in Blood, actually upped the speed and shortened the length until their songs were quick busts of pure energy. Voivod just threw out all the rules and embraced their inner prog on their classic, Dimension Hatross.

What I’m saying is there isn’t one simple formula. Black Cobra has not changed as dramatically, but with the help of producer Billy Anderson (Melvins, Neurosis, Sleep, High On Fire), they’ve beefed up their sound. Through the product of just Jason Landarian on guitars and Rafael Martinez on drums, they’ve written some of their most memorable riffs to date, and in doing so, they’ve delivered one of the best metal albums of the year.

Chronnomega opens with “Negative Reversal,” which initially feels like standard Black Cobra fair. But its breakdown with drums and guitar swinging in unison, let’s you know that lessons have been learned. Utilizing short tempo changes and varying rhythms adds weight, and there’s a coherency to the songs on Chronomega that was mostly lacking in previous efforts. Riffs flow more naturally into each other, and the vocals have been pushed to the front, resulting in a more guttural and less screamy sound than before.

The track “Chronosphere” is where the album really takes off as Black Cobra unleash a chugging, almost funky riff. The song offers pop structures with its key changes and distinct melodies but retains all kinds of heaviness through straight up killer riffage. It sounds like the love child of AC/DC, Sabbath, and Slayer, yet still sounds uniquely Black Cobra.

It’s interesting to note that the first wave of thrash owed it’s debt to Maiden, Priest and Sabbath, and it was pretty clear to see. Beneath all the devil imagery and double time riffs, Slayer’s Show No Mercy is basically a reinterpretation of the sound Judas Priest laid out.

In the late 90′s, metal bands became influenced by Slayer and their ilk. And by trying to one up those bands, these bands became increasingly interested in speed for speed’s sake. Yet the faster they played, the less heavy they sounded.

Bands like Black Cobra have been trying to reclaim the scene by widening their influences. The riff at the beginning of” Zero Point Field” gallops along like Iron Maiden but sheds the epic grandeur and replaces it with a level of doom. It’s much the way Slayer took the sheen off of Judas Priest and replaced it with their own evil ways.

That’s not to say Black Cobra don’t also owe allegiance to Metallica or Slayer. But instead of looking to Master of Puppets and Reign In Blood, which would seem to be the natural tendency, Black Cobra brilliantly hearken back to the good old days with straight Kill ‘Em All scratchy style riffs on tracks like “Storm Shadow” and conjure up reverb heavy drum rolls a la Slayer’s Hell Awaits on the bombastic take “Machine.”

Chronomega is chock full of history, and not always what you expect, yet never sounds derivative or clever clever. That’s what makes this album such a killer. Black Cobra have found a way to maintain their aggression and ferocity without sacrificing their power or cred by mining decades of metal and working it seamlessly into their own vision. Chronomega is, simpy put, metal as fuck.
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Catch Black Cobra Wednesday, November 25, at the Cobra Lounge. The show is FREE!!!
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