Fifteen years gone and suddenly Chelmno emerge again, as if nothing happened, as if time itself folded in on their own orbit. I still remember spinning Horizon of Events and thinking this band was going to disappear into the very black holes they were invoking - and well, they sort of did. Now they’re back, and Decadence of Ego isn’t some polished “comeback album,” it sounds like it’s been gestating in the dark all this time, covered in rust and star dust, waiting to burn through the speakers.
This isn’t one of those “Italian black metal has its own sound” talking points (though it does). Chelmno channel the same lineage - Emperor’s cosmic arrogance, Darkthrone’s skeletal hunger, Bathory’s filthy crown - but they do it in a way that feels wide-eyed and scarred at the same time. There’s melody here, but it’s not pretty, it’s like light leaking through cracks in a dying sun. The riffs stream out endlessly, sometimes hypnotic, sometimes collapsing in on themselves like a dying orbit.
What I love most is that it doesn’t feel like they tried to modernize a damn thing. There’s no sterile production, no safe songwriting. It’s raw but not amateur, sharp but not clean - the kind of sound that reminds you black metal wasn’t supposed to be digestible. And you can tell Vidharr has that same pulse he’s carried through Tenebrae in Perpetuum and Beatrik - relentless drumming that’s not just “fast,” but actually drives the whole vision forward.
Decadence of Ego is less a “return” and more like a transmission from a band that refused to rot. It’s not nostalgic, it’s not trend-chasing. It’s simply black metal the way it should be: hostile, expansive, refusing to bow. The fact that it’s been fifteen years makes no difference - Chelmno sound like they never left, because this kind of conviction doesn’t age, it just hides in the shadows until it’s ready to strike again.