Cleansing of an Ancient Race

The "Cleansing of an Ancient Race" demo tape was the first release from Abyssic Hate. Upon listening to it, you really wouldn't be able to tell it was a demo tape. The material on here is of extremely good quality and would better be suited for an EP or maybe a full-length if it were a bit longer, but regardless, this is still surprisingly a demo tape. Compared to later releases such as the demo "Life Is a Pain in the Neck" and the full-length "Suicidal Emotions", this sounds like a completely different band.

As I mentioned in my introduction to this review, the production of this demo is great. It's still a bit raw by conventional standards but it's so clear, you can hear every instrument perfectly. Hell, the early full-lengths from Darkthrone or Burzum were lesser in production value than this demo. Seeing as this was released on the cassette format and limited to only 100 copies, I expected it to be far more raw than it is. I think the rawest track on the demo would be "Tarrasque" as it does actually sound slightly different than the other songs. It's far fuzzier and sounds a bit more muffled but hell it's still even fairly clear. The guitar tone is absolutely amazing throughout the 28 minutes this demo has to offer. There are some furious tremolo riffs thrown in here and the pace overall ranges from mid-paced to fairly fast. This is mostly where "Cleansing of an Ancient Race" differs from the later recordings. This is a straight up black metal demo that utilizes obvious influence from early Darkthrone in terms of song structure. It focuses far less on the depressive and suicidal themes on Abyssic Hate's later works. I can't say I enjoy this more than Abyssic Hate's DSBM works but for what it is and what it tries to do, it succeeds.

The drums are mostly comprised of blast beats and there is very little variation going on here. This is one slight issue I have here. What makes up for this is the crispy clear quality of the drums, and this makes them sound more powerful and in your face. The double bass is amazing and the snare drum even makes itself audible most of the time. The cymbals do get a bit tiring after a while, though, and it sometimes gives these songs a "lawn sprinkler" effect during the blast beats. There are mid-paced moments such as within "Bloodletting" but this song still has some blasts thrown in towards the end.

This is, overall, a fairly impressive demo that could easily be mistaken as an EP and, if there were a few more minutes in length added to these tracks, we could count this as a full-length effort with is above average production value. In fact, a gripe I would have with this demo is the length. It just feels too short and somewhat unfinished but is definitely still worth the time to listen.

The dark lords be praised that this guy Shane Rout and his Abyssic Hate project celebrate 20 years of purveying misanthropic black metal; if this were a mainstream music act, such news would be trumpeted all over the mass media ad nauseam! As the debut release, "Cleansing of an Ancient Race" would receive a reissue on a mainstream record label and the reissue, digitally remastered to iron out the scratches, would be graced with new glossy artwork and perhaps feature an interview with Rout on how he came to record the work, what motivated him to form Abyssic Hate and what he hoped way back then to achieve with AH.

But then some time back in the last 40 years of the 20th century we ceased living on a normal planet Earth and started living in the universe's dark doppelganger. Living on planet Earth's evil twin, we must be content to hear the demo as it was originally recorded. For a debut, this is a robust and well-constructed work of constant energy and aggression. Rout throws himself right into the deep end and starts swimming furiously in a sea of thick guitar, driving riffs and fast pummelling death metal-style drum-beats. At first the songs don't sound all that different from one another and seem to be all in the same key going at the same speed; with repeated hearings, distinct riffs, melodies and rhythms become noticeable. At least the songs are continuously busy and surging forward though structurally they are repetitive with a big reliance on guitar riff loops. The singing is filled with anger and bottomless hate.

Of individual tracks, "Land of Impenetrable Darkness" has a good and interesting mix of martial rhythms and the song has a fair amount happening in it so it's very busy. Most other tracks are more straightforward than this. The last couple of tracks on the demo are especially aggressive.

The production is raw but not very sharp: at least you can hear individual instruments though the bass might seem a bit blunted. The quality is about what can be expected for early underground black metal recordings released on cassette.

There's so much happening in this half-hour set that listeners need to sit through the demo a few times to absorb everything Rout does here. There's thick fuzz guitar distortion with a steaming chainsaw-guitar buzz going on in the background layered with a lot of quite complex drumming and non-stop riffing. The work is very much a labour of love and the effort Rout has put into the demo is considerable.

This album is probably one of the best Australian Black Metal bands I've heard in a long time. Not to say that there isn't better, this I will have to say is just at the top of my list.

Many people have compared this to Darkthrone, and I can see why, but I can also see where not. While Darkthrone is minimalist and has little substance to their music, this band does quite the opposite. They have filling songs with a roaring inferno of impressive vocals, and repetitive but well placed riffs.

Where they do get their Darkthrone similarity is in atmosphere. They have a very brooding grim atmosphere that seems to just produce an enormity of hatred and misanthropy that you want to hear from a black metal release.

I also have to compliment the band on quality for a demo. It has very standard black metal quality being sort of semi-under produced, but at the same time it's very clear to pick out all of the parts and to appreciate every aspect of them. This is the sort of quality you expect on a band's second or third full release, not their first demo. Frankly an amazing accomplishment.

Vocally, this album is powerful, providing an uncompromising torrent of rage and hatred, clearly projected in a fashion that people familiar to quality black metal will be able to appreciate. Same goes with the instruments, well played, uncompromising, and having quality of many of the greats of black metal.

This is a great demo, and if you can find a copy I have a high praise in attempting to purchase a hard copy of it.