BLACK ABYSS — Possessed (review)

Album · 2012 · Power Metal

4/5 · 2012-12-16
adg211288

German power metal act Black Abyss may have a history going back as far as 1990 but in that time they’ve only released four studio albums including this 2012 effort, Possessed, which is something of a comeback release for the group as it is the first Black Abyss release since 2004’s Angels Wear Black. I discovered the band some time after that album was out (albeit not through that album), so I’m not entirely sure what happened, but somewhere along the line I presume Black Abyss must have lived up to their name and fallen into a black abyss, one that they’ve only just managed to escape. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the time frame between albums, the band that emerged has a largely different line-up to the one that disappeared.

While musically Black Abyss remains well within the power metal genre, Possessed has a different feel to it in almost every possible way it could have without being a different genre entirely to the band’s earlier album, Land of Darkness (2000), which is the only reference point I have to go on with their older material. While the older album fell under the banner of heavy power metal due to its balance between traditional and power metal elements, Possessed is a much more the pure power metal effort where a dash of traditional metal is only present for a bit of flavour to add some variation to the direction of the release. Some vague symphonic elements have additionally crept into the background, as in Possessed By Hate. Production wise it’s also a lot more polished although Black Abyss stills has that typical German approach to power metal that keeps its aggression factor a bit higher than the more keyboard driven acts manage. I think Land of Darkness was a bit rougher than Possessed and I do somewhat miss that little extra edge the music had but fortunately Black Abyss have made up for it in other areas.

The best of these is that vocalist Olliver Hornung has delivered a superior performance to the older album. He’s become more varied and melodic vocally which works well with the consistent power metal approach to the music although there is also a small helping of growls on the album, particularly in the opening song, As Long As I'm Bleeding, and final song, The Grail, which give the record something of a modern feel as growls have been becoming introduced to power metal more and more it seems of late. Given that he still has some of the rougher approach used on Land of Darkness though the growls slide into the Black Abyss sound nicely.

The songs generally manage to stick in my head a little better as well, especially Conquering of Fate and Bloodforce, although there are no bad tracks on the album, only good one and great ones. The only part of the album I generally disliked was the way it kicked off with As Long As I'm Bleeding, which features an audio recording of what I can only presume from the content is an eye-witness interview following the September 11th 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. I’m not a fan of such intros in the first place and if this is really what I expect it is I don’t know about anyone else but it just comes over as bad taste to me.

Possessed was one of those albums which didn’t leave much of an impression on me at first spin though, but it grew on me with subsequent listens and ultimately I find Possessed to be a successful comeback for Black Abyss. And all in all I imagine that if you were coming to the band for the first time Possessed would be an easier album to get into than Land of Darkness, which is an album I love but admit it may sit more in a niche area than this one. A great album tier rating is deserved.

82/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))