Abyssal: U Jam?

If tomorrow I am tasked with creating an extreme metal album, I will march directly to England and enlist the member(s) of Abyssal to produce it. That way, my record could be the very addictive and authoritative kind of awesome that is Abyssal’s third album, Antikatastaseis. Really, the key word is “authority,” such is their album’s vibe that its seven riveting songs are the product of brilliant design. It is spiritual cousin to The Mars Volta’s first two albums, as it can force the air from your lungs with pressure and foreboding. But their connection is strictly philosophical; Abyssal is deftly plotted, reverby, horizon-filling blackened DM that plays like the 60-minute national anthem of an subterranean civilization oppressed by a blinding red sun and black squalls. Their day, 300 hours long, begins with this album’s broadcast. Its interludes spill into the songs that follow them and stay there; these are the protests of the minority amid the roar of the majority. Build shelter, screams the latter. The minority, however, votes to succumb. This is their song. Crank it up!!

Abyssal’s Antikatastaseis came out two Tuesdays ago via Profound Lore. Get it here and here.