"Drowning" In the Depths of CHASSM's Engulfing Post-Metal (Video Premiere)

Rarely is a fixed-perspective, edit-free performance of a song a must-watch video recommendation from me, but what makes a good music video comes down to what actually compliments the song, not the mechanics or the budget. As it happens, this format suits Australian post-metal duo CHASSM perfectly: the video for their song “Drowning” puts the listener directly above the band, peering down into a practice space so tiny it seems like there’d have to be a regulatory code violation involved. Jammed tight with monstrous cymbals, amps, and humans, the tight quarters bottle up the song’s sound, compressing its crashing waves and contortions into a powerful vector for its emotional missive. Ahead of the release of their sludgy and atmospheric debut album Falling Forever, submerge yourself in the video for “Drowning” below with our premiere:

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This perspective might hide some of the finer details of guitarist and vocalist Elijah Lee’s performance, but it does give us an unusually vivid window into Storm Mahan’s drumming, which fill the song with ghost notes and polyrhythmic fills that turn any potentially dull, quiet moments into involved tapestries of subtle details to watch from above. Mahan provides iron-clad backing for Lee’s emotive playing, who, twisting with each development and impact in the song (but having almost no room to maneuver) leans over his guitar as pensive clean melodies trade out with bitter, crunching shredding. It’s likely not possible to have much more of a bare-bones setup to perform in (and I’ve been in some small practice spaces, myself), but it’s absolutely the right size for this. With no external aid and no pretenses, the energy of the song is redoubled — and the passion and talent behind the duo’s performance are made blisteringly evident by the raw, non-editorialized nature of how it was captured.

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Falling Forever releases on June 24th, 2021 via Art as Catharsis.