The Abyss

A side project of Swedish death metal maniacs Hypocrisy, the Abyss is melodic and fast black metal that is probably the best output from this group of musicians. Sort of a Gorgoroth ripoff in parts but very cool nonetheless.

The Abyss - The Other Side (1995)
The Abyss - Summon the Beast (1997)

The Other Side

Nuclear Blast

1995

Production: The beginnings of the infamous "Abyss Studio" sound, this is a slick digital cut of a loud and clear sound.

Review: A melodic black metal formed of liquid strumming melodies which intertwine to harmonize in suggestion of spaces beneath its surface, creating an ambience in which the violence of the music is forgotten in the breathtaking motion of its melody.

Twisting from a simple chromatic polarity of notes a melody will gain its energy as it disengages from a dominant direction to become dissonant and resolve in a prolonged statement of its harmony with the ambiguous and illdefined minor modes, suggesting as does the simple but direct format of the rest of this music a truth obscure but alive. These songs vary the "skins" of their themes as structured from rhythm and counterpoint with lucidity and verve.

Tracklist:

1. Marutukku
2. Tjanare Af Besten
3. Psycomantum
4. Massacra (Hellhammer cover)
5. Morkrets Vandring
6. Sorgens Dal
7. Slukad
8. Forintelsens Tid Aro Kommen
Length: 29:17

the abyss the other side 1995 nuclear blast

If seen as culturally inspired, these songs almost represent opera for the technological information age, in which a vast story spills itself into chaos before the audience but is only resolved in suggestion and an angry, defiant, independent and anarchistic duality. In a style similar to Ancient or Emperor, this band drapes lengthy melodies over boxlike atmospheric percussion.

Weaving minor harmonies into each riff progression to build its tension for culmination, the Abyss are unafraid to throw their inertia into climactic melodies of counterthematic structure. Outlined in shrikes of mortal alienation on top of a blasting tirade of even percussion, this music mixes simple grindcore extremity into the sense of melody that gave black metal the voice of epic poetry.

the abyss summon the beast 1997 nuclear blast

Tracklist

1. Satans Majestic Empire
2. Blessed With the Wrath of Evil
3. Damned
4. Summon the Beast
5. The Hymn
6. Cursed
7. Feasting the Remains of Heaven
8. The Arrival
Length: 29:23

Summon the Beast (Nuclear Blast, 1997)
After a first album exploring already-established themes by Gorgoroth, Emperor and other black metal bands, The Abyss move their metal into the next generation of those adopting the stylistic work of a first echeleon of innovators and while finally achieving a stylistic balance, lose all perception of content in the process and fully genericize their music. At moments brilliant guitars inevitably devolve to a riff salad of mostly disjointed but individually distinctive pieces of song and phrase, breaking between rippling melodies at speed in the style of Marduk and hammering it home with deliberately ultra-simple drumming. Vocals are a screeching black metal standard down to production and follow fairly typical rhythms for stressing major tone center shifts in each riff progression. In this dumbing-down "Summon the Beast" is not a continuation of the context established on the first album, nor of its promise.