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ABYSSAL RIFT “Relic Of Great Ash”
ABYSSAL RIFT “Relic Of Great Ash”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Three man wrecking crew ABYSSAL RIFT are gruesome enough to appeal to lovers of disgusting sewer-diving death metal yet strange enough to make lovers of weird and avant-garde sounds take notice. That’s not an especially easy thing to pull off.
They are described as mostly death/doom, of which there seems to be an increasing amount these days, but the opening seconds of “Consummate Design” will take your head right off with an aggressive blast of raging death. By the end of the song, they’ve moved into twangy minor key post-metal territory with a dissonant twist. They end the track that way, too, bypassing the easy choice to end with fury. “Surrealistic Visions” is another track here that relies on bellicose speed and anger, reminding me somewhat of PESTILENCE.
Where’s the doom, you ask? Well, the 8 minute plus title track dishes that up in spades, dragging itself from the slowest INCANTATION pit with agonizing effort. But there are still some quirky bits to make it more than just another “cavernous” death metal band. “The Enlightenment” (There Was Never Will) combines twitchy tech-death with dissonance to show more unorthodox tendencies. I do have to admit that Matt Auxier sounds like the typical “wind tunnel” death growler throughout…no cleans in sight.
“The Death Of God” could have been an out-take from PESTILENCE’s “Resurrection Macabre” but album ending “Sphere of Perpetuity” has a lot of depressing twang and jangle in the mode of DISEMBOWELMENT along with doom and some synthy sci-fi ambience.
Solid album from Transcending Obscurity and ABYSSAL RIFT!
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