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Abyssal > Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius > Reviews
Abyssal - Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius

Descending, Dissonant, Decaying - 96%

Stillborn Machine, March 21st, 2014

After the relentless and sharply twisting and turning "Denouement" from 2012, this band has refined their art into a more sinister and ominous form. The Suffocation-style schizophrenic directional shifts are nearly absent and in their place are the doomiest parts of Asphyx and Demigod if they were interpreted by some strange modernist classical acts.

The main form of attack is still the dissonant tremolo riffing favored by most bands in this movement, but here there's a sense of perpetual descent, these angular chords wailing as they descend into the negative space of thundering abstraction from the previously noted doom-death elements. Song construction is in the linear-narrative approach akin to groups like The Chasm, however portraying an image of surging energy descendant into entropic, funereal decay rather than a warrior's psycho-mythic journey. Instrumentation is surprisingly technical and would make likely teachers Gorguts and Pavor proud, with each member integrating their skills so well into a song's flow they nearly pass by unnoticed. Among the strongest albums of 2013.

P.S. You would do well to check out Denouement as well. Also incredibly fucking awesome.

Absolutely Devastating - 91%

Nokturnal_Wrath, October 26th, 2013

Mixing elements of sludge and black metal in with heavy as nails death metal was sure to create an absolutely crushing and devastating sound, and Abyssal as sure as hell delivered. This is one of the thickest, heaviest and most devastating albums I've ever heard and it makes perfect sense when you see the array of genre influences these guys have pulled into their sound. Death metal is usually brutal and crushing, sludge metal is harsh and abrasive, black metal is raw and sinister, mix them all together and the end result is one of a ridiculous amount of heaviness of monolithic proportions.

Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius is a strong contender for the heaviest album of 2013 so far. The atmosphere Abyssal create is absolutely intense, created by some incredibly impressive musicianship. The band is incredibly tight, the music ranges from slow and droning to incredibly fast and primal, the tempo changes are fairly constant and never disrupt the flow of the songs. They feel natural and organic, never abrupt or disjointed. The best track to illustrate their use of rapid tempo changes in the first real song The Tongue of the Demagogue, which starts off with a ridiculously fast, blistering pace and then slows down to create a doomier, more atmospheric edge. Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius is never short of tempo changes, and it ensures that the album remains interesting and varied throughout. There are also some surprisingly melodic sections as well, as is the case with As Paupers Safeguard Magnates where near the end it slows down and a melodic sludge section rises up out of the slime, adding a small sense of humanity to this album.

Atmospherically wise, Abyssal have created an absolute monster, the atmosphere is thick, grimy and sludgy, it's unimaginably dense and absorbing, emasculated by the equally thick guitar tone, adding a layer of dense sludge over the music. The vocals are exceptionally well performed, being a breathy low-fi growl somewhat reminiscent of Uaral, they add a lot to the atmosphere, being very harrowing and inhuman. The whole atmosphere is one of dense loathing for the human race, the album is ridiculously hateful and aggressive, Abyssal take no chances to make this an easy experience to sit through, the songs are typically long and brutal, the music is dense and claustrophobic, and everything just feels designed to bring about the most intense atmosphere imaginable.

Overall Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius is an excellent album, it's got one of the best atmospheres I've heard in a death metal album, and the musicianship is nothing short of astounding. It's very heavy and abrasive, so it might be a little too much on the ears for new comers to extreme metal. But for those of us with a taste for the macabre, Novit Enim Dominus Qui Sunt Eius is a voyage into the underworld well worth taking. For fans of Antediluvian, Mitochondrian and Portal. Highly recommended.

For The Lord Knows Who Are His - 88%

wrathchild_88, April 5th, 2013

In 2012 it was safe to say that I was blown away by this new band and their debut album “Denouement”. Not even one full day into 2013 and we are delighted to hear that there is a new album seemingly out of the blue, much like the first. “So soon?!” I swooned. The album is available on their bandcamp page, for a very reasonable price I might add. Anywho, after getting over the initial thought that my favourite band from 2012 have released an album so soon in 2013 for me to get hooked on it for the whole year, I actually listened to it.

There are some stylistic differences between this album and their debut. The production I think is not as good, or should I say, clear – the problem being that there are times when everything seems to just mesh together and what the guitars are doing can't really be ascertained. Maybe the wall of sound is what they were going for, but I'm sure there are riffs in there somewhere trying to be heard through the huge fuzzyness of the guitars. But it's also true that I need some better headphones. The drum work is fantastic and fits the music at every twist and turn whilst being nicely varied throughout. It's fair to say that the vocals are not a very important part of the Abyssal sound – they're quite deep gutterals and are quite low in the mix too. They are very appropriate for the style though, I think any more importance placed on the vocals would detract from the overall sound. As for the lyrics, I'm not usually one to look at lyrics - especially when you can't make them out - but the themes here appropriately dystopic and oppressive and beautiful in their own way.

“Thriving in this fertile miasma
My pores moistened with entropic pestilence
Humid yet inert
Potent and directionless
Awaken”

The first few lines of the album in “The Tongue of the Demagogue” give you a good picture of what you're in for with this album. Meanwhile, the album cover of what seems to be a few spiders webs down a tunnel or cave or in a shed for all I know. This black and white cover is maybe apt, but not a great album cover by any means. Having said that, the booklet as a whole is quite a good accompaniment to the music, playing on their anonymity as somewhat terrifying underground ritualistic pagan lords or something else equally sinister. “Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius. The second ritual of Abyssal; successor to Denouement.”

Overall, while the riffs are as good and varied as they are on “Denouement” with pretty much every style or playing you could thing of (Abyssal being listed in the Archives as death/black/doom gives you a clue), they don't seem to gel together as consistently to create the separate songs. A notable exception being “A Sheath of Deceit” although it's extremely abrupt ending slightly irks me every time I hear it. The band have stepped further into a more crushingly doomy and dissonant soundscape – ever more fitting from a band called Abyssal and we're sinking further and further down into oblivion while being able to steer clear of 'style over substance'. I could never profess to being into doom at all really – especially not the extreme stuff. Occasionally the album wanders into this sort of territory and I start to zone out. There are always well thought out riffs to be heard, or sufficient amounts of fuzz in the slower sections but sometimes you've got to really listen closely to hear everything there is to hear.

The pacing of the album isn't too bad, it's quite dynamic in it's variation between blasting and droning and sometimes even some softer moments - “the Headless Serpent” emphasises this perfectly, but I find myself starting to zone out towards the end of the album, with a six minute song and three 8+ minute long songs ending the album. This section unfortunately contains the immense (in both length and hugeness of sound), yet somewhat tedious instrumental (aside from some whispering) “Created Sick; Commanded to the Well” in the middle of it - the riffs are there, it's just too long for it's own good. The closer “The Last King” however, it should be said, is fantastic and I think slightly more reminiscent of something off “Denouement”. Clocking in at 59 minutes, there's quite a lot to take in and the album my have benefited from cutting down the length of a couple of songs (or maybe just “A Malthusian Epoch”) just to keep everything nice and tight. Abyssal have succeeded again in creating an oppressive, helpless, melancholy atmosphere for our aural pleasure - as if someone had willingly entered the gaping void, having accepted their fate. I'd probably jump in if the opportunity arose and I can't wait for their next ritual.

I've heard this band mostly compared with Mitochondrion and Portal (among others, but those are the ones I've listened to). I can't say I'm a fan of either – especially not Portal – but I can't say that I'm convinced there's much of a resemblance at all but I can say that if you like either of those bands you'll probably like this. Not being in to them myself, I'd say that if you're into death and/or doom or anything with a massive oppressive atmosphere then you'll enjoy this.