UMUR
"Abzu" is the 6th full-length studio album by US black metal act Absu. The album was released through Candlelight Records in October 2011. "Abzu" features new members in the form of guitarist Vis Crom and bassist/vocalist Ezezu, which means that the only remaining original member is drummer/vocalist Proscriptor McGovern. Guest musician Rune "Blasphemer" Ericksen (Mayhem, Ava Inferi) plays all lead guitars on the album.
The music on the album is well produced and well written US black metal. In addition to the "regular" trademarks of the black metal genre, like furious tremolo picking, blast beats and raspy harsh vocals, the music on "Abzu" features traits from blackened thrash metal and traditional heavy metal too. As an example of the latter mentioned style, the opening track "Earth Ripper" starts out with a falsetto scream that would make King Diamond envious. I actually hear more than a couple of Mercyful Fate influences in the music, but first and foremost this is harsh yet clever black metal. The US black metal act Nachtmystium is also a reference IMO. There´s also a slight progressive touch to the music on "Abzu" which is a trait they share with Nachtmystium too.
The album features six tracks distributed over 36:48 minutes of playing time. The first five tracks are "regular" length tracks (between 3 and 5 minutes long), while the closing track "A Song for Ea" is a 14:46 minutes long track divided into 6 sub tracks. It´s not as such an epic, but more a selection of shorter tracks put together to form a longer track.
"Abzu" is generally a pretty interesting US black metal album, that I find that I return to on occasion. Absu are definitely one of the more distinct sounding and well playing acts on the US scene and "Abzu" profits from that. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.