Forever to Be Vanished There In

"Forever to be vanished there in" is one of these dusty jewels long forgotten or at least neglected by most fans in the extreme scene. However, for those who cherish old school sounding, obscure and authentic death metal, Abhoth offer a tape worth talking about.

To begin with, Abhoth hail from cold Sweden and their music most certainly sounds in the veins of the traditional Swedish death metal bands from that time. That's the first thing - if you search for something to remind you of the early 90s metal or at times even the sound of Entombed's "Left Hand Path" this demo tape really does it. However, while on LHP most songs are fast paced with only occasional slow downs, there are more slow moments here. The first track "Reincarnation of the Forsaken" starts so slowly that someone might classify it as doom/death. As a big lover of this genre this song instantly became my favourite from the three in the tape. The melody in the beginning even reminds me of the very first My Dying Bride albums, but only a lot heavier. After the very slowly beginning there is a faster part, the drumming gets really pounding and heavy and the guitar then starts to cut to pieces around minute two. A very lovely thing is the fast solo at the end, which doesn't end the song - on the contrary, it brings it back to life so that the guitar can show some more amazing riffage. The second track "Forever to Be Vanished There In" is the fastest and my least favourite. It doesn't have these varying changes in the tempo and is the most forgettable one of the three. However, the riff at 2:20 makes the sound really freezing and hateful, which compensates for the rather boring beginning, the solo at the end is also present, which further complements the awesomeness of track two. The last one "Darkness Greets" again has some death/doom elements and while someone might call it 'melodic', this sort of melodies have nothing to do with modern Swedish melodic death metal.

As I already said, the writing formula here very much reminds me of early Entombed. For instance, all the songs have some changes and slow downs accompanied by a magnificent guitar solo. Not to mention the perfectly matching vocals and superb drumming. HOWEVER, the tape we have here is LIGHT years slower. Bear that in mind. One more thing that I find really awesome is that the production is very good for that time. I think that this is how death metal albums should sound - unlike the metal of today that sounds like recorded by robots, then polished and fixed a countless times. To recommend this tape even more I can only say that I'm very sorry for the fact that these guys never released a full-length album. Go and listen to this to remind yourself of how death metal sounded in the good old days.