Another review crosses the moldy desk here at the Metal Machine back offices, as we peel the char off of the new Abstracter record, Wound Empire! And judging by the soot and brimstone vapors, we have ourselves a barn burner! follow the ley lines after the jump for the review of this slowburner!
Not much is listed from Abstracter’s Bandcamp page, but going off the tags, its a fucking funeral when these guys get up for a show! The second of 2 (ed: duh.) releases, Wound Empire is absolutely some of the bleakest, blackest doom/black metal you can find. Every chord, every note, every word, its all soaked in misery. For being a sophmore album, its solid as can be, having been Recorded and Mixed by Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer Studios, Oakland CA, and Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege Mastering Studios, Portland OR. The album also follows the great format of doom by having exceedingly long songs, the shortest of which is Open Vein at 9:44. Its not a quick listen, and one that shouldn’t be tried at short intervals either. The album, is deep, dark, and quite adept at blasting the happiness out of your mind like winds in the desert do to flesh off bone.
The album opens smoothly with Lightless, using a very quiet roll up on the volume, slow and ominous, with very little being actually played. Until about the 2:15 mark, its really just a couple notes, some held for the echo, and heavy crash and splash work. The whole atmosphere is depressing and permeates the record like a miasma of blackened fog, hanging about the listeners head and deadening the world around them to a pale version. Its a monster swimming from the dark depths, and only becomes larger as it goes to Open Veins, which picks up the pace and lays down some further melancholic grooves. The whole album relies on well written structure and a very doom metal sound, heavy with bass. Its very sad sounding, quite like cries after an unexpected death in the family, while the vocalist sounds like he swallowed sandpaper in his depression, and then moved onto rage at the gods for slighting him. It’s a heady combination, and one well worth the recording sessions. After Open Veins gets inside, Abstracter slows it down a bit with Cruciform, which is the sonic equivalent of overdosing on pills and booze. Its a long drop, becoming hazy and indistinct, but onward, towards an inevitable end, for the listener. Absolutely a highlight of this album, and exceedingly solid for a 10+ minute epic, it sticks in my mind. The last of the four horsemen, Glowing Wounds, closes the record magnificently, with multiple parts, wholly different tones, and beautiful vocal work. It again starts with some feedback, used to sculpt a background, as a guitar is picked, with their overdriven fuzziness adding a sour harmony. Everything else starts rolling in behind the simple melody, drums coming in, bass notes being held as a backdrop, it starts to all become a cohesive world as the vocals come in slowly. They are more sung than before, very ominous and held, like a whispered chant in a quiet church. The mixing really shines on Glowing Wounds, as everything is crystal clear to the listener, from the vocals to the bass buried in the background, if you want to hear something it won’t take you long to pick it up in the mix. Stellar. The tone shifts at about the 5:10 mark, as the singer switches back to being absolutely pissed, and the band starts back in with familiar territory with dark, heavy chording, but with a decidedly up beat drum section. The guitars switch in and out, dark & heavy and clean & heavy, making for a really nice mix. At the 8:20 mark, we get another shift, as they throw some riffing on top of us, and the song picks up again on the pace. Abstracter finish at, for them, a hard gallop, abruptly into feedback and fuzzing out.
For a band with only two releases, Abstracter has a very good sound. They are polished, they have the skill, and judging by this last release, they have tons of room to flex their musical muscles. If they can keep this pattern of quality up, and hopefully the same team, then they should be making huge waves the next time we see them. You can pick up Wound Empire, plue their entire catalog, at their Bandcamp Page.
