Personally, I liked this album better when it was called “Anthems Of Rebellion” or “Sweet Vengeance.”

Okay, that comparison isn’t valid. Both ARCH ENEMY and NIGHTRAGE did a lot more with guitar solos on those albums. I’ll also throw in DARK TRANQUILLITY, IN FLAMES and a tad of SHADOWS FALL for all of you who look for band names in capital letters and disregard the rest of the review.

As you’ve probably guessed, CHAIN COLLECTOR plays really generic Melodic Death Metal. They’re not quite the traditional Gothenburgers, more of the second wave that incorporates a little Metalcore (in the music, not in the vocals), but it’s still stuff we’ve heard and heard and heard and heard. There are few breaks from the pattern—mostly constituted by the song “And Then There Was None,” kind of a ballad—but for the most part CHAIN COLLECTOR is happy playing Gothenburg’s not-so-greatest hits.

Really, the most remarkable thing about CHAIN COLLECTOR is the line-up. On guitar you have Gøran Bomann (CARPATHIAN FOREST, the Norwegian APOSTASY, NEON GOD) and Kjell Jacobsen (NEON GOD) and Anders Kobro (CARPATHIAN FOREST, ex-BLOOD RED THRONE, ex-GREEN CARNATION, ex-IN THE WOODS...) on drums. Providing a reasonable Mikael Stanne impression is Sven Aksel Henriksen (APOSTASY Norway, ex-DISMAL EUPHONY) and clean vocals come from GREEN CARNATION’s own Kjetil Nordus, perhaps the most surprising band member.

If your wet dream is the more generic parts of „Whoracle“ grafted on to the less inspire parts of NIGHTRAGE’s „Descent Into Chaos,“ CHAIN COLLECTOR has made an album that’ll make you giggle like a school girl in joy. (Online April 16, 2006)