UMUR
"Megalohydrothalassophobic" is an EP release by Finnish death metal act Abhorrence. The EP as released through Svart Records in September 2018. Abhorrence formed in 1989 and is widely considered one of the seminal death metal artists from Finland and although their only recorded output before their 1990 split-up is the February 1990 "Vulgar Necrolatry" demo and the eponymously titled and posthumously released January 1991 EP, Abhorrence made a huge impact on the early Finnish death metal scene. After Abhorrence disbanded the members went in different directions and it´s predominantly the history of guitarist Tomi Koivusaari which is well known as he would found Amorphis with some of his old Violent Solution colleagues. Since 2012 Abhorrence have popped up here and there playing gigs, but otherwise not much have been heard from them...
...until the release of "Megalohydrothalassophobic". Abhorrence is almost back in the original lineup on this EP, but drummer Kimmo Heikkinen has been replaced by Waltteri Väyrynen (Opeth, Paradise Lost...etc.).
Stylistically the material on the 5 tracks, 23:42 minutes long EP is old school death metal and although this isn´t quite as filthy, morbid, and murky as the original Ahborrence material, it´s still audible that it´s Abhorrence playing and to my ears they´ve managed to compose some pretty powerful, memorable, and darkly atmospheric old school death metal. The balance between fast-paced, mid-paced, and doomy tempos work well, the growling/snarling vocals are passionate and convincing, and there are enough morbid sounding melodies to keep things interesting and varied.
With Koivusaari being busy with Amorphis and Väyrynen working with Opeth it´s doubtful if "Megalohydrothalassophobic" is anything more than a one-off release from Abhorrence, but should they decide to release anything further in the future and maybe even tour there is definitely a market for that, when the quality of their output has remained on the high level it has here. Featuring a powerful, brutal, and detailed sound production "Megalohydrothalassophobic" is overall a good quality release from Abhorrence and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
