THE ABSENCE F*CKING RULE; YA HEAR?

As my good friend Axl noted this past May, The Absence are one hell of a fucking good metal band. I’ve been highly digging on their Spring release Riders of the Plague but perhaps I haven’t written about them here enough, so let me just put it bluntly: THIS BAND FUCKING RULES AND YOU OUGHT TO PAY ATTENTION.

Even if you like what you hear from any band you’re introduced to, sometimes you don’t truly “get” them until you see them play live. Such was the case last night when I saw the Absence open up a four-band bill in support of Amon Amarth at New York City’s Irving Plaza. Yo… That shit was hot. The Absence completely slayed, and the 200 or so kids who arrived early seemed to agree.

So what is it about The Absence? Of any (relatively) new band I’ve heard this year, The Absence come closest to what I’d just describe as plain “metal,” hold the sub-genres please, for whatever that word means in the year 2008. Four of the five members have ferocious beards (including guitarist and occasional MetalSucks commenter Patrick Pintaville) and all of them long hair, but this is not beard-metal or hair metal. The Absence shred, but by no means are they shred wankers. There’s plenty of both European and thrash influence here, but in no way would I categorize The Absence as either Euro-metal, thrash or even melodic death metal / Swedecore. So what does that leave? The Absence are just 5 insanely talented dirty metal-dudes playing ferocious metal; and that’s it.

Check out a few tracks on their MySpace page pronto if you know what’s right for you.

-VN