The One Hundred - Chaos + Bliss album review

Electro-metal forerunners finally make a mark

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Cover art for The One Hundred - Chaos + Bliss album

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It’s been a long wait for the debut album from The One Hundred. With an ever-growing fanbase built around a series of exemplary live shows, you’d have thought that the London quartet would have struck when the iron was red hot, and got Chaos + Bliss in people’s ears a while ago. You can’t help feeling that if that had been the case, this record would have made a larger impact than it might now. Because, although this is a strong debut, there are a few bands that have already began to run with the electro/metal/rap hybrid that The One Hundred trade in. Luckily for them, they do it better than most. After a promising start the album explodes into life in its second half, with the unusually rough-and-ready sounding Hand Of Science followed by the euphoric tech-hop anthem Boomtown kicking the quality up several notches. Jacob Field delivers a consistently diverse vocal performance throughout, equally adept at rapping, singing and screaming, the title track is a superb riff-driven banger, and there’s enough to suggest that next time around The One Hundred could deliver something ahead of the curve.

Stephen Hill
Stephen Hill

Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.