ABSU — Abzu (review)

ABSU — Abzu album cover Album · 2011 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
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. Since the release of "Absu (2009)" guitarist Vis Crom and bassist/vocalist Ezezu has replaced Aethyris and Zawicizuz. The trio is rounded off by only remaining original member 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 even King Diamond proud. 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. There´s also a slight progressive touch to the music on "Abzu" which is a trait they share with Nachtmystium too.

The album features 6 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´s definitely worth repeated listens. Absu are one of the more distinct sounding and well playing acts on the US scene and "Abzu" also profits from that. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
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