Terror Nazarene

I suppose this is most similar to a sort of streamlined, more conventionally unconventional version of 'Covenant'-era Morbid Angel merged with a bit of modern Colombian death metal; the abstract dissonance of Azagthoth's riffing is intact, but the fretwork is more lucid and arcing than Morbid Angel's. This is a variety of death metal that seems to go backwards into the '80s just as much as it goes into the new decade; it's quite an odd little release, with an oldschool death metal spirit and mood but a very modern sense of delivery in many cases, and then there are the strange idiosyncrasies like the almost wholly random soloing or the barking and hollow vocals...

Actually what Abominattion reminds me most of is other South American underground death metal bands. Impressively, despite being from Brazil, the band has none of the Sepultura or Krisiun influence which seems to be part of literally every death or thrash band from that country; this is mostly US-based death metal, with Monstrosity emerging as another point of reference in the band's more epic and open moments. The production on this tape is of course not very good; it's quite flat and dry, probably a rehearsal room job if anything with somewhat annoyingly quiet drums and vocals that don't seem to sit right anywhere. As for the songs themselves, well, they seem a bit incoherent at times ('Triumph Of The Impure One' and its opening Origin-style tech riffing comes completely out of nowhere) and the riffs aren't all strong, but the tracks are serviceable enough without becoming irritating. There's a rather overt lack of catchiness, which I suppose is intentional, but I prefer my death metal a little more hook-laden, especially when you're dealing with a style as generally dissonant and unforgiving as this. Another point of complaint would be the lack of compositional richness; in the end this is all pretty much riff A/riff B stuff despite the technical edge.

It's hard to muster up a lot of enthusiasm for this since I've heard it all done before, but there's worse places to put your money. Abominattion hardly reinvent the wheel but I imagine those more thoroughly whetted to oldschool death metal would appreciate the effort more than I. It's fun enough but in the end I probably won't listen to this many more times.