Chaos Doctrine - And in the Beginning... They Lied (2021)

Chaos Doctrine continue with their own brand of ideological warfare in their latest album, And in the Beginning… They Lied.

Having already dealt with Moses in their debut album, and Baphomet in The Chaos Chronicles Volume I, Chaos Doctrine go all the way back to the beginning to rip open the institution of religion and interrogate its role in controlling humanity in the name of greed.

The monologue-based opening track “And In The Beginning” sets the scene for the album with a discomforting beat that smacks of blacksmiths beating iron into submission, adding to the song’s overall madness.

Tracks like “Blood Serpent God” and “Christ Church Horizon” really bring Chaos Doctrine’s religious revulsion into its own, the scathing ferocity of the former counter-pointed by the seething menace of the latter.

Veering slightly from the album’s core themes are songs like “Harlot” – which, for all its intensity just misses the mark – and the sprawling, intimidating ode to everyone’s favourite Russian enigma “Father Grigori”.
Apart from a lacklustre cover of Slayer’s “South of Heaven” – included as a bonus track – And in the Beginning… They Lied is a powerful body of work that asks big questions of the tenets our civilisation is based on, while also bringing more than enough heaviness to the party.