Unspeakable Horrors

It pains me to say this, but here we have a good example of what you could call "late for the party". This album, containing typical early 90's death metal, was released in the year 1996, a time when a lot of death metal bands were evolving towards other sounds (or selling out, your choice of how you want to put it) and black metal was becoming huge. Within the following year a large part of the underground was walking around in chainmail armor and puffy shirts, with their faces painted in something that looked like the result of a threesome between Gene Simmons, King Diamond and a panda. It was during these unfortunate times that Abominant released their debut, a pretty solid offering of US death metal, a style that was becoming less and less popular at that time. It's something the band themselves must have realized as well because on later Abominant releases like "In Darkness Embrace" or "Upon Black Horizons" there are a lot more black metal influences present than on their first album. Don't get me wrong, these albums certainly aren't bad at all but I myself like their debut best and now I'm going to tell you why.

As I mentioned earlier, this album is pure death metal, owing a lot to bands like Deicide, Sinister and early Gorguts. The songs are varied, it's not just blasts all the way through but thrashy tempo's and slower, groovier parts as well. Quite a few of the tracks on this album contain hooks that incite some shout-along action and make the songs stick in your head after just a few spins. Here and there are some keyboard parts but their use is more one of ambience, just to add an extra touch.The singer employs a style that reminds me of Glen Benton's vocals, alternating between a growling style of singing and the occasional scream thrown in. It's not all peachy though, in "The Ecstasy of Sufferance" the vocalist uses a kind of spoken word style that I personally could have done without and that goes for the "plinky-ploinky" part (with some more spoken vocals) in album closer "Unspeakable Horrors" as well, but that could be just a matter of taste.

Another thing that's perhaps a matter of taste is the production. Sure it is heavy and you can make out the songs clearly, but in my opinion the guitars could've been more up front in the mix, now they sound kinda thin. It makes the album sound like a demo, a well produced one but still a demo. I sometimes imagine what this recording could have sounded if it were produced by someone like Scott Burns. It would have elevated the album to a higher level, I'm sure

Let me put it like this: if you're a fan of early 90's death metal and some of your favorite albums include the first couple of Deicide records, "Osculum Obscenum" by Hypocrisy or perhaps even Mortification's "Scrolls of the Megilloth", this album is a pretty safe bet and some rounds of furious headbanging are certainly guaranteed!