SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: CHEMICAL WAVES – THE END OF EVERYTHING – PART TWO

CHEMICAL WAVES
THE END OF EVERYTHING – PART TWO
WAVE RECORDS

Chemical Waves is really Marco Cattani, from Rome, Italy. Under the name Chemical Waves, Cattani has been making music for over ten years. The End Of Everything – Part Two is the most recent offering by Chemical Waves, and it follows The End Of Everything – Part One released in October of 2023. The music is very heavily influenced by 1980’s dark synthpop. It is like Joy Division meets Depeche Mode. This does not mean that Chemical Waves are not original, quite the opposite, but it does set the context for the album. And it gives one the idea of the music in the sleeve.

The End Of Everything – Part Two is an interesting album, as although Chemical Waves wrote, produced, and performed the album, there are a number of guests. Almost every track, in fact, features another artist that helps Chemical Wave create the sound. The opening and closing songs for the collection (“Torched” and “In The End It Ends”) are the two of the exceptions and they are instrumental. They also bookend the album beautifully. Two other instrumentals (“Digital Heart” and “Not Make A Noise”) also just feature Chemical Waves. The instrumentals add quite a bit to the album and break it up nicely. They are brilliant in their own right. “Not Make A Noise” is particularly interesting. It has great layered sounds and borders industrial while maintaining a cool melody.

However, guest vocalists add quite a bit as well. Canada’s own Bleached Heat, for example, provides vocals for the song “The Human Room” and it is a great track that does dip its toes into the 1980s gloom synthpop and it sounds magnificent. “My Metropolis” is another that could be from The Visage songbook and sounds fantastic. Here The New Arctic provides the vocals and it is quite a stirring song. Each guest brings their own sound, vibe or feeling to the album. But because all the songs are created by Chemical Waves, there is a very cohesive sound throughout.

Lyrically, it is on the dark side of life. “The Black Hill” for example, which features The Fleurs, features the closing line “You can find what’s left from me. I will play hide and seek forever on that hill”. It is creepy and depressing with the matching soundtrack, but it works extremely well. The last track with vocals on the album, “A Day Without End” opens with “When light declines I climb out this grave”. It is not a pleasure trip, that is for sure. The song features great vocals from Cold Grey Rain and it certainly leaves it open for a third volume in this series.

The End Of Everything – Part Two is an album that does take one back to different times and to a different place. This is very dark synthpop, with cryptic lyrics and foreboding instrumentation. But Chemical Waves brings it all together for a very strong and enjoyable album, in the sense of watching a horror film or reading a Stephen King novel. It wouldn’t be as good without the well written and produced music. In Chemical Waves’ hands, the undead and depressing relationships are fascinating and quite engaging.

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