One year after Chemical Breath’s debut demo, the band released its second demo tape "Beyond Reality" in 1991. On this one front man and lead guitarist Alain Chernouh took over the vocal department and Rene Rokx joined the band as a second guitarist. On "Beyond Reality" the blueprints for the band’s more technical style was set. "Mutilation" and "Erased From Existence" would also appear on Chemical Breath’s debut full album "Fatal Exposure". I cannot remember the amount of copies this one sold, but I do recollect the impact was huge! "Beyond Reality" also contained one legendary song, named "The Convicted".
A band which was highly esteemed in the underground in the early 1990’s was Belgian Chemical Breath. And damn rightfully so! They played death metal in the vein of the well-known Florida death metal scene. The musicians were well-skilled and knew how to add a lot of technical finesse in their music without losing the listener’s attention. Not really surprising that Chemical Breath were frequently compared to Death. Opening track "The advantage of disbelief" not only contains some killer fast technical guitar picking but also an atmospherical breakdown in the middle of the song with keyboards and some female backing vocals without sounding cheesy! Vocalist/guitarist Alain Chernouh has a very cool screamy grunt. Shit man, all 9 songs are absolutely killer! I just realize I should play this album a lot more often. It’s quite amazing how fresh this band still sounds considering the fact this CD was released 10 years ago! Check out those guitar solos, not just some fast shredding but rather thoughtful picking of notes. Hell, and what about those guitar harmonies? Yup, this shit is still just as amazing as it was back in the day! They also released a 2nd CD called "Values" on which Alain used a more thrashy growl like Phil Anselmo. Unfortunately, I never bought me a copy of this album and I regret it to this day... Damn great band!
This long time passed Belgian/Dutch band is one of my all time favorites. When just being into extreme metal I was extremely honored to be present at the band’s weekly rehearsals in my town. During the early nineties Chemical Breath belonged amongst the top of Belgian and Dutch death metal bands. Chemical Breath’s technical death metal went even a step further on their second album, entitled "Values". Still now they do sound original and still now the sound can conform to today’s standards. Yet this album has got a more raw production than on "Fatal Exposure". Back then in 1994 Chemical Breath got a big smack in their face because band leader and superb guitarist Alain Chernouh changed his imposing grunt (as on "Fatal Exposure") into a more Pantera alike scream. "Values" would have sound so much better with the man’s original grunt. You can run but you can’t hide! Chemical Breath and "Values" are obligatory for each self respecting BeNeLux death metal fan! A truly groundbreaking release!