Absu – Abzu – Review

Absu is back with their second installment in a recording trilogy. Abzu brings six new tracks with a little more play within the black metal genre from Absu. From classic black metal to a more thrash even a little acoustics mixed in.

Diving into “Earthripper,” the band comes out the gate with a blackened thrash riff with classic black metal vocals and sets the tone for the onslaught to continue. The album has enough variance and toying with sounds that it doesn’t become repetitive like most black metal albums do for me. For example on “Circles of the Oath,” the atmosphere and brutality are not sacrificed one bit as the band transitions into an acoustic outro.

Some may argue that due to the cleaner production and other various reason that Absu is more blackend death metal, which is fine. In reality all I have to say is if you enjoy a hearty black metal sound that lets every instrument resonate within your ears you will enjoy Abzu. It certainly builds off of the self-titled and improves on it. Personally my favorite track is “A Song for Ea,” because it has more rising and falling action than the buzzsaw assault that makes up the majority of the album.

If you enjoy bands like Behemoth or Melechesh you will definitely enjoy a band like Absu if you don’t know of them already. It is a solid blackened death metal album with a lot of upside and little downside, sure the album only has six tracks but it is still over thirty-five minutes of music which is rather average for the modern full length. I would suggest checking out “A Song for Ea,” if you like it Abzu will not disappoint one bit. [James Terry]

Score: 4.25 (out of 5)

Release Date: October 4th, 2011
Record Label: Candlelight Records
Genre: Occult Metal
RIYL: Melechesh, Destroyer 666, Inquisition

Track Listing:
1. Earth Ripper
2. Circles of the Oath
3. Abraxas Connexus
4. Skrying in the Spirit Vision
5. Ontologically, It Became Time & Space
6. A Song for Ea including:
a. E-A
b. A Myriad of Portals
c. Third Tablet
d. Warren of Imhullu
e. The Waters – The Denizens
f. E-A (Reprise)