Alphabetically Reviewing My Music Collection Week 4: Abriosis and The Abyss

Alrighty, so this week we're tackling Abriosis, a tech death band out of Vancouver - wait a second...

Is that a fucking woman?

Great Scott, it is!
© Top40 Charts

I guess that's cool. It's not every day I review a band fronted by a chick.

 I don't listen to that much crunkcore, y'know?

I don't know where the hell I got their song Peering Into Oblivion, but that's what we're listening to today. I've never listened to this before, so it should be a pleasant surprise.

Peering Into Oblivion

© Omega Media

This sounds like your average Tech-Death offering to me. I like the part a minute and a half in when the vocalist starts screaming and growling and the guitarist shreds in between. The vocalist has a pretty impressive range too. For the most part, she sticks to the high screams, but she has some pretty gnarly gutturals. The guitars sound like something out of a Black Sabbath album. To be honest, apart from the harsh vocals and the blast beats, this song has a doom-metal vibe to it. I can dig that. 

The video version has different mixing than the album version. The drums sound like weak dick in the video version, and the vocals are a lot less prominent. (Listen for yourself.)

What Do I Think

I checked out the rest of the songs on this band's EP. Their guitarist is really good. The vocalist can scream her ass off. But to sum my feelings about this band up. They're nothing special. 

I'm not the biggest tech-death fan. I feel like Tech-Death is a genre for people who want to be impressed by their listening experience rather than entertained by it. That's not me.

Next band!

The Abyss...

Or should I say ...

Swedish Death Metal Gods Hypocrisy???

That's right. The Abyss was a black metal side project Hypocrisy took up in the 90's. And I honestly have no clue how I didn't pick up on Tagtren's signature air raid siren screeching until now. 

Satan's Majestic Empire

Black Metal gets a bad rap as the genre about praising Satan, that is exclusively recorded on the shittiest equipment possible.

I wish I were exaggerating.

© Varg Vikernes

Everything is dark, including the imagery, the lyrics and the artwork. Goats, Satan, facepaint, Varg, what can I say that hasn't been said. 

First off, I'm 45% sure this is satirical. Despite, this shit sounds pretty good. It's really reminiscent of Darkthrone. Which is an all-around win. Tagtren's vocals are very offputting. But going back and listening to actual black metal, if he's doing an impression of that vocal style, he actually doesn't sound too far off. The guitar has just the right amount of distortion and fuzz.  The snares are pounding in the background. And everything is perfectly melded together for that trve- kvlt production quality.

What Do I Think

All in all, I'm not a gigantic black metal fan, because I think it represents everything wrong with metal as a whole. That said, this doesn't even really sound like black metal so much as someone imitating it. But what kills it the most for me is the Tagtren's vocals. He sounds like a retarded cartoon villain. And the edgy subject matter doesn't help at all.  

As always I listened to some more of their music. This entire album sounds like one long-ass song to me. Their next record, The Other Side was pretty dope. The production was way better, and it was more listenable from an instrumental standpoint. It was almost reminiscent of In Flames or Edge of Sanity. But once again I really couldn't get behind Tagtren's vocals. Ruined the whole damn experience. Needless to say, I probably won't be listening to anymore Abyss.





Next week I'll be tackling one of my favorite melodeath bands - The Absence!

See ya there!

Scooby-Doo Unmasking Picture © 1969 -1970 Hanna - Barbera Productions

Abyss and Hypocrisy Pictures © 1996 -2013 Nuclear Blast

Chris Fronzak Picture © 2016 Sharptone Records

The Absence Picture © 2018 Metal Blade Records