| Reviews for Abhorrence (Fin)'s Abhorrence |
| A More mature Effort - 87% |
| Written by CHRISTI_NS_ANITY8
on June 25th, 2008
|
| This is the second and unfortunately, the last effort by Abhorrence. This time, is an EP that, anyways, is shorter in length than the first demo. Their death metal style hasn’t changed a lot from the beginning but here comes with a better production even if we don’t find the hyper clean and pounding sounds. It’s always death metal in its purest form, so it needs a right, putrid sound. The intro is erased by the incontrollable fury of the opener, “Pestilential Mist” where the blast beats are perfectly balanced with some doom passages. These last ones, in particular, are truly morbid and rotten with some dissonant part while the guitars play tremolo picking riffs when the blast beats are the most important tempo. The vocals, as the demo before, are not excessive but more suffocated and somehow similar to the American death metal wave. “Holy Laws of Pain” features a quite thrash metal riff at the beginning, to flow in some more impulsive blast beats. That thrash metal riff is a sign of maturity, while the old Morbid Angel influences of the past demo are almost completely gone. “Caught in a Vortex” contains obscure arpeggios at the beginning to become Swedish death metal riffs and that’s strange for a Finnish band. Here they were so similar to the sounds in the Grave’s debut. The only thing that differs is the use of the blast beats. The atmosphere is murky, heavy and really brutal. It seems to be in a desolated wood at night. The guitars are extremely rotten and the obscure and the scary tones as intro to “Disintegration of Flesh” are an example. The down tempo parts are the most odd and obscure ones. There is no light in these riffs, just suffering and misery. The lead guitars draw scenarios of pure madness and depravity. All in all, another good effort by this overlooked band. The lovers of the purest form of death metal will like it. It’s obscure, rotten and perfect for a horror film. It marks also a step further for this band, which finally reached a good level of personality, leaving a bit the old influences to find their own path to death metal. |
| Timeless Classic.... - 95% |
| Written by TortureFiend
on June 29th, 2007
|
| Fans of Finnish/Swedish/Scandinavian death metal know what this is with no introduction. Its not surprising that this is now revered as a "cult" release, seeing as it was not only one of the breakthrough deathmetal releases of the Finnish scene, but also the fact it was released on the long-dead Seraphic Decay records... Forget the "Entombed" comparison above, this is death in the old FINNISH way, and connoiseurs of the genre can tell the difference Im sure... This is low-tuned, sludgy, gloomy, scandinavian death metal in its most stripped down, primitive form. The album has definitely got that somewhat "etherial" feeling in the recording, and the vocals are a low death growl. While "caught in a vortex" is considered the band's "hit song" by many (a fact that is bolstered by FUNEBRARUM's recent cover of the song...), I tend to prefer the final track "Disintegration of Flesh" due to the gloomy riffing the song starts with, and the path it travels through the end... All in all, if you consider yourself a fan of Scandinavian death metal and you either dont have this release, or have never heard it, your life is not complete until you find it! |
| Death should just be the beginning - 72% |
| Written by Egregius
on June 14th, 2004
|
| If death metal is deconstructive nihilism eschewing teleological purpose and meaning in life, "seeking freedom by dropping out of the imposed social order and embracing chaos and entropy" (source: Richard Carpenter), then one of the inherent pitfalls in death metal must be to fall into the eroded groove of 'rebellion first, creative thought' later. When the short intro (which positively surprises by lack of intent) goes over into 'Pestilential Mists' we are treated with a groove that morphs itself sequentially into several riff-themes, only disrupted by an annoying breakdown into standard pummeling. The second time this disturbance comes around however, it has established itself as a bridge to the final theme: a dirge heralding imminence of perishing. On the second track the aforementioned pitfall establishes itself however. The band finds itself in a groove often fallen into by death metal bands aspiring towards freedom from conventionality. Disjointed parts that gain internal cohesion by simplicity, and intercohesion only by a common theme of being so simple that it's seperate elements have been spontaneously reproduced by the various bands of the early 90's deathmetal explosion, by sheer force of being easy to manifest. In 'Caught In A Vortex' the band has found essence again however. Introduced to gloom by cavernous acoustic chords, the fuzzily distorted guitars soon overtake the same melody until they erupt with the realised necessity of action. Finding direction in movement the song progresses towards a point where movement becomes frantic untill controlled once more. When the futility of attempted control slowly becomes apparant the song breaks down into chaos once more, untill stillness is found in fatalistically letting control go to the forces that be. Opening with black metal-esque chromatic riffing, the band decepts into not expecting the following simplistic breakdown in 'Disintegration Of Flesh'. After this the band doomily descends to nihilation, occasionally warning with those annoying breakdowns that the end won't be blissfull peace, and emphasizing with an occasional return of the opening riff that death is ever malicious. Death is ancient, and the end carries no new message, no profound meaning that wasn't apparant before Abhorrence from Finland redirected thought towards it. |