Abysmal Darkening

What we have here is the 2004 demo of a rather unknown dutch band. The line-up exists out of members from the now defunct black metal band Sauron and the extreme doom band Bunkur amongst others.

Defining the style played by Abysmal Darkening is quite difficult, as it really is crossing the boundaries. On the one hand you really feel the depressing, suicidal feeling common to doom metal. But at the same time there is this rotten, hateful vibe accustom to black metal. The first band that comes to mind when you try to compare Abysmal Darkening is the legendary Bethlehem during the “Suizid” album. Much like fellow Dutchman Marco Kehren on said album, Singer Ludas wails like a madman standing at the point of no return, just waiting for that final blow, that coup-de-grace delivered by the dark boiling essence of what we call humanity. So when we compare these two bands it would be best to describe Abysmal Darkening as Dark Metal.

Now on to the actual music. Since this recording contains only 3 songs, it is simply impossible to review this album as a whole and still explain what this recording is all about.

The first song “End It” deals, much expected, with ending life. But unlike a lot of suicidal or depressive bands these days, it is not about ending your own life. Instead, it wishes to kill you. All the depression and torment is not the fault of oneself, but the fault of everyone else. And it is not oneself that has to be punished, but everyone else.

Second song “Malicious Deceit” contains lyrics that could easily be found on a black metal recording with it’s anti-Abrahamic content. The song contains multiple fragments of works from Nietzsche. The interesting thing is that the sound of this song is the one that is least akin to black metal.

Closer “Useless Flock” can be considered as the connection between the foregoing songs in multiple areas. Where “End It” has a very hateful black metal like feeling to it, “Malicious Deceit” has a more doomy feel to it. Also when you compare “End It” and “Malicious Deceit”, you will feel that the atmosphere of “End It” is the faster one. This doesn’t mean that “End It” contains more BPM, but it really has to do with the black metal/doom metal feeling. “Useless Flock” seems to be combining elements from the foregoing songs while leaning a bit more to black metal.

The overall sound on this record is quite good. Everything can be heard perfectly. This is the direct opposite of what most depressive acts seem to be doing. Even the bass guitar, that is so often inaudible or simply omitted, can be heard perfectly.

The only critique that I can give is the length. This record clocks in at just a bit under 20 minutes. Give me double, or even three times that length.

Conclusion: If you are into a combination of doom and black, or if you get a boner when hearing music similar to Bethlehem’s “Suizid” this is something you can’t miss!