Abyssus - Death Revival

Beginning from the title alone, and after listening just the first few seconds of the first song, Metal of Death, it is made clear that this record is an homage to classic death metal of the late 80’s, early 90’s. What is also evident throughout the album is the high quality of the songs and a meaty production that takes us back to the early days of death metal. At the end, the feeling that stayed with me was that it is more than just a homage. It is indeed a death revival.

From the perspective of the creators, if I am not mistaken, death metal ought to be suffocating, aggressive, relentless, terrifying, based on great riffs and a growling voice that comes from the deepest of the deeps. I believe they had the goal of creating a death metal album that if released in 1991 would now be placed among the great death metal releases, along with Leprosy, Cause Of Death, From Beyond et al. and I also believe that they achieved their goal.

Starting from the cover art, made by Andreas Marschall, and moving to the music itself, everything seems to be in its proper place. The length of the album is just 33 minutes, but they are more than enough to enjoy riffs upon riffs and to growl along with Konstantinos Analytis about The Beast Within or our Uncertain Future. Genocide begins with the pontic lyra and it is made clear that this song is about the genocide of the Pontics by the Turks at the beginning of the 20^th century (I could mention here that I am of Pontic descend). The Witch, a less than 3 minutes song, manages to include everything necessary for a stomping death metal song. The album closes with the lengthier song, Where Wolves Are Out To Hunt, a slow paced death metal fog that gradually accelerates to mid paced where Analytis growls

They are coming for you

They are coming for you

Watch out!

Death Revival manages to be among the best releases of 2022, even if we are still at the beginning of the year. The quality of the music is top of the line and every metal fan that enjoys death metal will find here everything they want.

Death Revival was released from Transcending Obscurity records on the 21 of January. There are two things remaining now. Firstly, to see them perform their material on a show and secondly, to get my hands on the vinyl release.