ABSU - Barathrum: V.I.T.R.I.O.L. CD Digipak (Ltd)

US Black thrashers Absu are usually known for the three recordings following this while this one is usually tagged as generic. Who can blame the average person, after all, those albums were so good they made this one look bad. Well let me tell you, this isn't anywhere near bad.

Here we have about 7 tracks amounting to 30 minutes worth of music. The first one is what I refer to as the kind which is to get you into the mood and atmosphere. I think each black metal record should have one as it takes a couple of minutes for the listener to actually be able get into the thing and adapt his mind (and body? :P) to the corrosive and diabolic sound, so different from every other form of music. Here, my wishes have been taken care of.

It is after that that we are able to luxuriate in demoniacal beauty of black metal, whose portrayal by this band in this album is above satisfactory, contrary to popular belief. Proscriptor's much celebrated and acclaimed drumming can be heard here along with a bunch of good power chord riffs. The speed is unfortunately a tab bit slower than what you probably know Absu for, but surprisingly the fact won't disappoint you at all.

Another reason why I like this band so much is that they don't have any stupid stories to support them (Ahem, Mayhem anyone?). It's simply all about the music. I just hate the fact that people fail to realize that this album predates most so-called Norwegian masterpieces (I am again talking about the terribly overrated “Mayhem”, in particular).

shantanupatni1991, February 19th, 2009 - Metal Archives