Absu: Abzu – see what they did there? Sure it rolls off the tongue with much greater ease than the likes of ‘The Sun Of Tiphareth’ and ‘Third Storm of Cythraul’, but on the surface it does seem awfully lacking in the creativity department. Word has it that part three of this trilogy of albums is due to be named ‘Apsu’. Well so it makes a little more sense, according to good old wikipedia Abzu is a type of holy Mesopotamian fresh-water, and Apsu is what it translates to in the ancient language of Akkadian. Perhaps not as ridiculous as it all sounds, then?
Setting off with a face-shredding shriek, ‘Earth Ripper’ gets straight down to business demonstrating no amount of pretension, at least not on the surface of things anyway. If you forget about the weighty mythological concepts then Absu really are all about speed and aggression and all the things that every bunch of Slayer-worshippers care about. Musically this hurtles forth like a rickety old train at 100mph; one rough and bumpy ride that is really kinda fun, and it is occasionally pulled back into line by an oppressive Middle-Eastern groove, kicking up a chilling whirlwind in the process. Drums lay down a solid foundation on the whole, while lending themselves to rhythms as changeable as the weather and really give off a vibe of Mesopotamian chaos as battering blastbeats collide with gnarly riffage. I like the way ‘Circles Of The Oath’ is broken into momentarily with a jazzed up, bass-laden groove which helps to build up a sinister ambience.
There is a ripping ferocity to ‘Abraxas Connectus’ as its guitars sound truly menacing to the ears; I mean they are horrible in the nicest sense of the word, shredding away like half a dozen rusted jigsaw blades ripping into tender human flesh. The vocals of Proscriptor are as vicious and unpalatable as ever, occasionally veering up into that soaring thrash metal yelp. As ever, there is a rawness to Absu’s sound and it is one to listen to when you want something full-on and aggressive to whip your hair to; it owes as much to old school thrash as it does belong within the black metal confines and through all its magick and mysticism, it retains a Sodom-like simplicity with raw, old school production values. Having listened to this a good 8 or 9 times I can’t honestly say this is Absu at their best; it lacks the intrigue of an album such as ‘Tara’, while the swaggering black metal rhythms of the self-titled album are nowhere near as prevalent on here and it isn’t sinking in too well. That’s not to say that it won’t grow on me though. For now, I’d say this is a solid, although not particularly memorable, release.
http://www.myspace.com/absu
Luci Herbert
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