Review by Alex on June 19, 2020.

Enter the vessel and prepare for a space geodesy when you get your hands-on Chaos Over Cosmos' second full length album, The Ultimate Multiverse. Having always been a supporter of progressive metal but rarely finding the time to highlight a few bands, after hearing this album, I refused to let the opportunity slip-away. I think my gravitation to the sub-genre was aided by the video games I started playing in the early 2000s; Betty Bad, Dark Orbit and a bunch of titles from Wild Tangent really molded my interest in real science and science fiction through the worlds those games presented for adventure and the ambient music that accompanied them. But to hear metal bands give musical representations of themes rooted in science fiction and video games could be just as exhilarating and adventurous as playing a video game of that nature.

The Ultimate Multiverse resurrects feelings of getting tossed into some random place in space or a planet unknown to man and even incites nostalgia, making you wish you still had your HP Pavilion PC with those trial version video games that came with it. Its combination of highly catchy melodies, darkly ambient revealing keyboard atmospheres and guitar solos telling of a nomadic drift outer space, reconnects the listener with his/her inner child. I haven't enjoyed a progressive metal album this much since first hearing Synthetic Breed's Perpetual Motion Machine, and while The Ultimate Multiverse is different from that album (at least on a technical level), I can't help listening to it repeatedly as I would that of Synthetic Breed's.

I could take songs like 'Cascading Darkness' and 'One Hundred' and use them as theme music for Dark Orbit or even Dreadnought. The keyboard synth is on-point as far as launching you into these wondrous all the while shadowy atmospheres mantling the music as heard on previously mentioned 'Cascading Darkness', that at the same time, has enough room to facilitate the progressive reciprocation occurring. Take a song like 'One Hundred' or 'Worlds Apart' and strip away a single feature at a time and you'd still get a fairly serviceable piece of music due to the competent and high concentrates of any select element. Progressive and ambient stretches ignite and engage in a matrimony that'd directly affect the appearance of a song. Then they're so many instances of the vocals being interchanged and strategically swapped to amplify an effect that you could really struggle trying to parenthesize the music as a whole. You'd get that feeling on 'Consumed' that really starts reaching for the skies so to speak in terms of the juggle between clean vocals, death growls and those post-core screams, all the while frequently masking its appearance through the musical diversity.

The drums are programmed; however, I did not identify this immediately because of the human element attached to it. The sequences don't sound as though they can't be replicated live by a real person; instead, though being computerized, the drumming maintains technical organic-ism and/or believable functionality. The riffing is phenomenal, select any solo and it'd qualify as a highlight on The Ultimate Multiverse. Those power and progressive metal guitars battle it out on we 'We Will Not Fall', delivering a jaw-dropping dose of six-stringed ecstasy. The Ultimate Multiverse is out of this world! I'd highly recommend this for anyone that enjoys Animals As Leaders, Devin Townsend Project or even non-metal stuff like DarWin. The Ultimate Multiverse invades all orbits and hemispheres via Narcoleptica Productions June 20th, 2020.

Rating: 8.8 out of 10

Review by JD on November 15, 2011.

Having been a musician myself for many years (I will not admit to how long I have played), I tend to love bands that have something different yet still very heavy to offer my ears. For the most part, my artistic and metallic needs have been met with a few disappointments along the way.

Italy’s Martiria is a Epic/Progressive band that has been around since 1987, yet only have released four full albums since 2004. As a band, they are fuelled by old school metal that is filled with massive melodies and pinpoint hooks that seen to leap out at you... but there is a problem. Martiria’s dated sound and weak sounding production and even weaker guitar bite holds this talent filled act back from where they could be.

Songs like 'The Sower' and Twenty Eight Steps' are more than just good pieces of music, but the weak sounding production and the lighter than it has to be guitar sounds makes it less than what it is. If Martiria could add some real punch to every sing that they have, these songs would go from really good to utter godliness in no time, and showcase a band that could be commanding a global audience. As it stands now, they cannot compete with some of the other acts that are out there - even from their homeland.

A few tweaks in the studio, plus a putting a little bit of steroids in their guitar sound will propel Martiria to a whole different level, and will get the metallic masses around the world to fall at their feet. I hope that this band takes this little bit of a suggestion to heart - I hate seeing a band that misses out on their potential just because of a little oversight and a tad bit of stubbornness.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship:8.5
Atmosphere: 7
Production: 6.5
Originality: 7
Overall: 7.5

Rating: 7.3 out of 10