In case you missed Decibel Magazine‘s premiere of Abyssal Rift‘s song “The Scourge“, here’s a recap:
It’s every bit as frightening as the cover art above for this Ohio band’s debut album Extirpation Dirge. Hell, it’s even more frightening — both abyssal and extraterrestrial, abysmal and maddened in the sensations generated by the eerie reverberation of its swirling and swarming riffage, its strangely writhing leads, and the monstrous roars and ghastly screams welling up from catacomb depths.
But that’s not all. The song moves from hammering and scathing intensity into a wraithlike realm, where swaths of ambient eeriness surround glimmering and glittering notes and musing bass tones. Then the chords lurch like a behemoth, gargantuan and grim, heaving ahead as those horror-show vocals rise up once more and a guitar wails in agony.
That song is like a dream of death, un-real in all of its morphing aspects. It’s also a vivid display of Abyssal Rift‘s creative dynamics, a rendering of death/doom that’s viscerally arresting but also atmospherically surreal, and strangely seductive as well as monstrous.
You’ll also be glad to know that many more chilling thrills await within Extirpation Dirge, including the song we’re presenting now — “The Eye“.
This one, even longer than “The Scourge“, is if anything even more multi-faceted and experimental in its sensations. It brings together corrosive, depth-charge chords and ethereal quiverings; the crash and slash of music that sounds cold and imperiously malignant, and squirming arpeggios that leak misery. And of course the vocals are again horrific.
But unlike “The Scourge“, “The Eye” convulses in the violence of blasting drums, turbulent bass, boiling riffage whose anti-melodies sound as diseased as they do berserk, and a completely freaked-out guitar solo that will spin heads and drop jaws.
And at the end of this one, you get weirdly distorted spoken words backed by an earth-quaking stomp that seems triumphant — as well as horrid.
Abyssal Rift is the work of Columbus-based multi-instrumentalist Matt Auxier (of industrial acts 6th Circle and Ash Prison) handling all instruments, songwriting, and recording, with the exception of drums (performed and recorded remotely by David Mahoney of Irish black/grind terrorists Unyielding Love).
Having heard the two songs above, it won’t come as a shock to learn that Abyssal Rift is Auxier‘s vehicle for expressing his appreciation for dark and atmospheric death metal bands like Incantation, Disembowelment, and Immolation, as well as for ’60s and ’70s prog bands like Goblin, King Crimson, Eloy, and Amon Düül II.
Extirpation Dirge is set for release by Sentient Ruin Laboratories on December 1st, on LP, CD, MC and digital/streaming formats. You’ll find all the options, including apparel, via the links below. Sentient Ruin recommends it for fans of Incantation, Disembowelment, Spectral Voice, and Demigod.
https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com
http://sentientruin.com/releases
ABYSSAL RIFT:
https://www.instagram.com/abyssal_rift
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552706140400