Vehemency Year after year and an album after another, Abominant has been cranking up new material since mid 90s and never reaching big fame. This is understandable in the context that the band most certainly aren’t innovating anything new, but on the other hand their newest output Where Demons Dwell has remained rather steadily in my player for a long time already, meaning that in spite of all the similarities to other bands, Abominant’s ninth full-length is a great listen.

I’m not an encyclopedia when it comes to death metal - a genre where only a few bands truly interest me - but Where Demons Dwell reminds me of a couple of other American death metal churners, namely Ares Kingdom and Arghoslent in the sense that instead of mere blasting, the band in question knows how to incorporate some melody into the music as well. Don’t get me wrong, Abominant sounds authentically evil and heavy, but melody is carefully used in a few places such as on epic solos and, for instance, on the vaguely melancholic and black metalish (think of Weapon) chord progressions of ”The Wolves of Hate”. Another place where the black metal flirt can be heard is on the discordant, Watain esque guitar picking intro of ”After the Fallout”.

This kind of variation throughout the otherwise old school 40 minutes is what makes Where Demons Dwell rise higher than many other death metal contenders of today in my books. There’s a few weaker tracks in the whole though, the last two in particular, that perhaps repeat the previous ones too much, but there’s absolutely nothing on the album that I wouldn’t enjoy at least to some extent, hence ensuring its place among my currently favourite death metal albums. Production-wise, the record isn’t either dirty nor polished, balancing fittingly somewhere between, and the instrumentation is handled professionally (bonus points for the steady yet monstrous drumming) and the growls - nothing too guttural - are delivered with power. All this makes a recommendable piece of death metal, and it won’t be long until I’ll look into their back catalogue.

Pelata Let’s be honest, shall we? When one thinks of death metal, the state of Kentucky doesn’t automatically spring to mind. Well, Abominant is out to change that with its indie release Ungodly.

Abominant plays a mix of early 90′s death metal with black metal tendencies. Lot’s of guitar harmonies, blast beats, old-school metal rhythms and a mixture of low, guttural and black metal vocals. The recording and mix on this Ungodly is quite good. It’s definitely as good as I’ve heard on a death metal record. The artwork and packaging are totally pro as well. The songs on Ungodly are competantly, darkly melodic, and heavy! The guitars of Timmie Ball and Buck Weidman are a combination of thick, crunchy rhythms, clear clean tones, and good lead tones. Their use of dual guitar work on both leads and rhythms is top notch. The Rhythm harmonies on ‘Treasures Of Darkness’ are a testament to this. Some of the lead breaks come off a little rushed and juvenile, but overall they do a stand up job. Craig Netto is your typical death metal drummer, and that is in no way a derogatory statement.

Death metal has a long history of having some of the tightest, most intense drummers in metal and Netto is another example of this. As much as drummers stand out in death metal, bassists often don’t. They are the unnoticed sealant between the rhythm guitars and the drums. Mike May does a great job of holding these songs together, even if he is only holding his ground. Vocalist Mike Barnes has a versatile throat. He goes from low-end brutality to mid-range growling up into high-end shrieks effortlessly. His tone in all three is full and rich, never thin. This also gives him a added sense of dynamics. The songs all maintain a good balance between death metal brutality, black metal darkness and moody melody. Comparisons to Anata would not be off base. If they keep putting out product as high quality as Ungodly, Abominant are sure to make a nice, bloody gash in the underground.