ABYSMAL DAWN — Leveling the Plane of Existence (review)

ABYSMAL DAWN — Leveling the Plane of Existence album cover Album · 2011 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
The Block
Our Primitive Nature

Not to say anything bad about Abysmal Dawn, who has released one heck of an album, but overall the album is pretty unoriginal. Besides a few songs here and there most of it is you normal run of the mill death metal. It is in no way brutally heavy, but there is a sense of grandness to it that makes it a very enjoyable listen.

One of my favorite tracks on the album is “The Age of Ruin” because it is a totally different song from most of the rest of the album. The bass and guitar opening is very sinister, and one of the high points in originality on the album. The whole song, though barely two minutes, is a great opener and shows off great musicianship especially by Mike Cosio and Charles Elliot. Another short, but good, song is “Our Primitive Nature” which, as you can tell by the name, is a very basic, yet enjoyable song. It provides a nice interlude on the album and has some nice Congo work by Scott Fuller. The song is a nice lead up to “Perpetual Dormancy”, and is one of the only other creative songs on “Leveling the Plane of Existence”.

As I’ve said before, this album isn’t really all that original, but even though it still produces some great riffs and melodies. The opening of “Manufactured Humanity” could have been taken right out of “The Sound of Perseverance”, and has a nice electric guitar opening, but from there it levels out to a more plain sound. Most of the melodies are reminiscent of late Death work and also Morbid Angel. The solos are also pretty good, especially on “Manufactured Humanity” and the beginning of “In Service of Time”. The slow sections, such as those on “The Sleeper Awakens”, are very well played and add a nice touch to the album.

The production is pretty standard of the modern U.S. death metal scene, but it goes with the album fine. Relapse Records has, once again, struck something good this year and have really shown how good of a label they are.

“Leveling the Plane of Existence” is a nice effort from Abysmal Dawn, and any fan of their past releases should definitely consider picking this one up. Even though at times it can fall into some genre clichés, “Leveling the Plane of Existence” is a very good album with nice drum work, cool solos, and overall good musicianship. For their good effort Abysmal Dawn gets 3.5 stars.
Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Bad Blood Alternative Metal
SETYØURSAILS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Bellum II Symphonic Black Metal
AQUILUS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Sal Metalcore
ARCTIC FALLOUT
Buy this album from MMA partners
Thorn Metalcore
TIDE HAS TURNED
Buy this album from MMA partners
Write The Story, Change The Plot Metalcore
AETHERIALITY
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us