Abysmalist - Vile Possesion (Sea Blue Vinyl)
$24.00
"The slow and easy riding reveal of “Possession” manages to sound like Abysmalist want to make a big thrashing fuss over the grand opening of ‘Vile Possession‘ yet the song itself communicates only dread, calloused thoughts, and a miserable boredom with its plodding, nearly stumbling pace and very simply crafted riffs. The effect isn’t so much surreal as it is uninspired in terms of performance as we’ve heard groups whip this sort of groovy shit up like a god-damning whirlwind since the early 90’s. That’ll be key context missing for a lot of folks who’ll make a quick love-or-hate judgement on the first impression of this debut — Abysmalist are very much making good on the promising grooves and gore of 90’s Obituary and Jungle Rot per their own hardcore punk, crust, and crossover thrash background which I’d more-or-less detailed in review of their first demo tape "Reflections of Horror" (2019). The way they’d sold it upon introduction is a taste for “pre-blastbeat” death metal where the groove metal and ex-thrasher skill set figured their way around extreme speed pre-1994 with heavier, bigger, and meaner songs yet I’d say the element missing here is the killer app, yes… the riffs." -Grizzlybutts
