Abysmal Dawn : "Nightmare Frontier"

 

It's been two years since there last impressive offering and while I am disappointed that this is an EP with two new original and two covers rather than a full length, I will take what I can get. The opening track is pretty standard death metal though well-crafted and executed, more straight forward than I expected from them. This band has created something that captures the steam rolling aggression of Deicide combined with the ever-shifting grooving riffage of Morbid Angel, meaning they have latched onto the best elements of death metal and woven them into something that is their own. 

They are precise not technical as they do not create riff Twister that gets tied up in the math of the riffs. Are they very capable at pulling out a full shred guitar solo? Yes, they are though the song itself it not just bread to put the solo between.  I am not sure why they chose the In Flames song that they did to cover. I have never been into In Flames so this might as well be an original as well. There are more heavy-handed guitar harmonies which I know plays into the kind of heavy-handed melodic Swedish brand of death metal that the band is known to be the godfathers of. To be honest I would much rather have heard another original from these guys instead. They play the song well; it just does not have clear cut point.  

Now the cover they do of the Candlemass classic "Bewitched" is another story altogether. This kind of underscores the problem they had with covering In Flames, what works with "Bewitched" is it is not the same genre of metal, it is doom so that gives them room to do something different. Where In Flames is kind of redundant as it is not that far removed from what Abysmal Dawn already does as a death metal band. This had already been released as a Flexi single, it is good to have it here. The vocals are the most impressive part as they nailed it.  Overall, I will give this a 9, it is a pretty impressive showing but I think they could have done more yet what we got is still very impressive.  

Death is June - Abysmal Dawn : "Phylogenesis"

For all practical purposes you might assume this is the type of death metal album I would not like. They are as far as death metal goes ...mainstream. The production is huge and they color with single minded aggression in blood red. This is the band's first album in 6 years. While on paper this might not come across as something I would be into. These guys prove a point.. It doesn't matter how heavy or technical you are, you can still give a shit and write good songs. These songs are what wins me over against all odds. Yes the labyrinth of riffs might be a lot when they first hit you with it. The vocals are along the lines of post Vincent Morbid Angel, but they do serve a purpose and tell a story. More so by the second song where they are spat out in such a way it is actually catchy.

The catchy song writing does not end there. The riff to "Hedonistic" draws you in, even among the spatic flurries of double bass. The vocals are multilayered and kind of Deicide like. The songs are very consice, no ponderous journeys over the seven minute mark. They dig in a come up with a groove here and there on "A Speck in the Fabric of Eternity" . Some Slayer influence creeps up on the more thrash accents of the riffs. The most accesible song to the metal mainstream is "Coerced Evolution". It has a ithgt almost nu-metal like groove to it. The tricky time signature embellishments they do still keep you head bobbing. They are not as successful on "True to the Blind". It is stil la decent song the bar hs just been raised higher than what they are bringing there. "Soul Sick Nation" is catchier than your average death metal band. The hammering of the drums begins to wear me down a little at this point.

The last song "the Lament Configuration" is more of a straight forward grooving beast. If you are a fan of these guys ten you already know what is up and need very little to sell you on this one. Even then I am giving this album a 9 , which is likely to still place it above the bulk of the death metal album we are going to discuss this month. Very likely to crack the top ten death metal albums of the year list, even if it is in the bottom 5. Want big , dumb and fun death metal to beat your ear drums with? here it is.Released by Season of Mist.