As their name portends, the Greek death metal band Abyssus did not arise to shine light and love on a miserable world, but to submerge it into deeper darkness and more relentless savagery. Since the release of their debut EP a dozen years ago, they have not wavered in their dedication to musical renditions of blade-sharp barbarism, esoteric terrors, and punk-fueled mayhem, nor allowed mercy to mediate their music.
The band’s latest descent is an EP named Under Siege. It was released without much fanfare near the end of last year, and so the title of this feature plays fast and loose with the “premiere” word, which is something we almost never do. But the chance to help spread the word about Under Siege was just too tempting, especially now that it’s being offered by Chaos and Hell Productions on CD.
The EP consists of one new song (“Siege of Drogheda“), one cover of a punk hymn by GBH (“Necrophilia“), and recordings of five prime songs from the band’s discography performed live at an Abyssus show supporting Asphyx in Athens last fall.
That new song, “Siege of Drogheda“, is a brutal but electrifying musical beast that revels in its savagery — drums ruthlessly hammering with d-beat abandon, the bass rumbling, guitars slashing like blood-crusted blades, and a voice howling like a fanatic and famished wolf.
In the midst of the slugging and slashing the lead guitar quivers in derangement, the solos spasm in displays of fret-melting ecstasy, the riffing feverishly jitters and squirms, and the bass channels its own heavy fevers.
It’s the kind of song that kicks a listener’s pulse into high gear, a galloping and marauding onslaught that’s wild yet taut, and heavy-grooved enough to crack skulls and leave ugly bruises.
If you listen to the original GBH song “Necrophillia“, you can quickly detect that band’s influence on Abyssus, and in their cover Abyssus richly pay their homage. They fly fast, hit hard, and ramp up the rabid vocal viciousness into the red zone. In tandem with “Siege of Drogheda“, it makes for a high-octane one-two launch for the new EP.
From there the band unleash those five live recordings, which prove that Abyssus are just as locked-in on stage as they are in a studio, and the quality of the recordings makes that plain. It doesn’t take much imagination to envision a sweaty throng of moshers whipped up into frenzies by these tracks, and they provide red-hot reminders of the band’s songwriting talents and execution skills (or executioner’s skill).
“The Witch” keeps the pacing high right after the EP’s opening tracks, while “Echoes of Deslation” prove that Abyssus are as capable of saturating the senses with moods of misery and suppurating rot as they are in setting off riots — though they open up the d-beat and go into vicious mauling-and-mangling mode before the song ends, replete with plenty of tremolo-picked derangement.
As the next three songs escape their chains, moods of madness and supernatural horror bloom within “The Beast Within“, the agonies of pestilence slowly seep through “Unleash the Storms” (interspersed with sizzling bursts of fretwork mania and livid percussive scampering), and hulking monstrosities stinking of decay lurch their way “Into the Abyss” and then run riot, exploding into insectile fretwork swarms.
Through them all the music also bludgeons and batters, and those raw and red-eyed vocals come for your throat with teeth bared. The soloing also continues to seize attention, maybe especially the forlorn wail of the one that ends that final live track.
All in all, the new EP is a lavish treat for fans of Abyssus, and for all die-hard fans of death metal. Experience it for yourselves now:
CHAOS AND HELL PROD:
https://chaosandhellproductions.bandcamp.com/album/abyssus-under-siege-e-p-2023
https://www.instagram.com/chaos.and.hell.productions/
https://www.facebook.com/chaosandhellproductions
ABYSSUS:
https://abyssus666.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Abyssus666