Track listing: Freeze the Frame, Leaves in the Wind, Moral Control, The Promise, Liquid Dreams, Follow the Line, Downward Spiral, Through the Lens, Liars, Clockwork Man, Choose Your Weapon

Intensity, power, a full-on onslaught of sound. Part Dream Theater, a dash of Trivium, Fates Warning, and vocal screams that will resonate with you for days to come. This is Bombyx Mori's latest album Chaotic Resonance. At the root of it all is Stefano, who once isolate by the Coronavirus pandemic, began to assemble an international line-up of musical beasts to record the songs you hear now before you.

Bombyx Mori the band, like its namesake (it's the scientific name for the common Silkworm) has similar undergone a painstaking production process in order to create a high quality product.

You could talk for days about the intricate bass guitar parts that barrel down at you like an avalanche...but a well-executed, organized avalanche in which each component has a very specific placement and purpose. The guitar riffage is epic in its complexity, as are the mathematically perfect drum parts.

Bombyx Mori brings together so many influences, due in part to the songwriting but also because the number of musicians contributing from around the globe each brings to Chaotic Resonance their own set of influences and instrumental expertise.

Full Stop! Yes, in the middle of "The Promise" you have a blistering saxophone solo. That's not a misprint. When's the last time you heard sax in a dark/death metal release. Now that I'm hearing it, I advocate for more of it in the genre. 

Then with "Liquid Dreams" the album takes a hard left turn toward prog rock and/or some form of jazz fusion. The chords are jazz, the production more Zappa than anything else. So dissonant. Truly bizarre. But after this nearly 1-minute intro the song falls into line with the rest of the album: heavy, hard, and that aforementioned "intense."

Chaotic Resonance is a challenging album. Definitely not mainstream but also not simple enough to be tossed randomly into dark/death metal playlists. There's an intelligence in Stefano's songwriting that may bother more hardline metal fans. Hell, "Liquid Dreams" breaks in a bridge/solo section that sounds like a bridge on a Vai or Satriani record. Expect the unexpected with Bombyx Mori--and that's a good thing in this case.