Not so much Death-Doom as Diet-Death Metal. Germany’s Abyzz have been around a fair while now but ‘Empusa’ is the first time they’ve come onto my radar. However it is the German’s third full-length album and their second self-release in a row after their debut on Head Records. There’s an old adage about judging a book by its cover, and if you were to do that with this album you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a relic from the turn of the millennium. Shoddy artwork aside, the band’s mid-tempo Death Metal borrows from the likes of Celtic Frost, My Dying Bride and probably half the roster of Firebox Records.
The opening track ‘Empusas Lair’ is a quiet ambient affair, with plenty of emphasis on the quiet as barely audible voices and instruments come to a meager crescendo to herald the start of the album. ‘Hekate’ sounds a little more promising, despite its rough sounding mix with a bit of a Mediterranean flair to its guitar riff. ‘Creation Divine’ taps into the Swedish Melo-Death scene for inspiration and sounds a lot fuller for its trouble, though some variation the vocals would have made it more compelling. ‘Withered Evolution’ goes down the Doom path with its slower tempo and warmer sounding production but it tends to twist and turn against itself as it goes on. ‘The Heritage’ goes for a more old-school sounding Death Metal sound and actually works quite well as a result.
‘My Existence’ carries on that old school feeling nicely, this time with a Doomier twist which makes the wait worthwhile. ‘Fear-Emptiness-Despair’ scrapes the bottom of the Melo-Death jar again, but like the first few songs on the album it just feels flat and poorly mixed. ‘Alone’ mixes things up with some mournful guitar work coupled with some Darren White style vocals and is a genuinely interesting and well put together track. ‘And Now You’re Die’ is a title that seems to have been lost in translation somewhat and unsurprisingly the rest of the song seems to have the same treatment as it chugs and snarls away to itself. The album closes with ‘Reborn Again’ which picks up an old thrash riff and squeezes the remaining life out of it for all it’s worth.
The real shame about this album, is that there are three instances where the band sound tight, and the songs rock solid. The rest of it feels like it was written and recorded in a rush. There feels like very little care has been paid to getting these songs to sound as good as they possibly can. A three track EP comprised of ‘The Heritage’, ‘My Existence’ and ‘Alone’ would have had far more impact.
http://www.abyzz.eu
http://www.myspace.com/abyzzmetal
