Greek death metal band Abyssus made some waves in the underground with their 2015 full-length Into the Abyss, which offered up a sound that channeled a significant amount of Obituary and Asphyx and had that old-school crunchier tone with bass that popped out at you. The group has hardly been idle in the years since, favoring smaller format releases like EP’s and splits that allowed them to continue refining their approach. 2022 finally brings a follow-up to Into the Abyss in the form of Death Revival, which makes some noticeable tweaks to both the recording and the writing. It’s not likely to convince anyone that doesn’t already love this particularly old-school variant of death metal, but those who can’t get enough like myself will find there’s plenty to appreciate about Abyssus’ latest.
The well-named “Metal of Death” kicks things off with the sound of a distant storm, with the crackling of thunder leading right into a speedy attack of death/thrash. Compared to some of their earlier efforts the sound on Death Revival is a bit more guitar forward, and while there are still some moments where the bass gets some focus the emphasis seems to be more on the guitar and drums this time around. Stylistically there’s still a lot of Obituary and Asphyx to be found across the seven tracks, but the inclusion of elements of death/thrash from the period when the two genres weren’t fully separated yet also brings earlier Death and Possessed to mind. Abyssus is keeping things decidedly old-school with dark yet heavy riffs that are oriented towards speed but also know when it makes sense to pause in favor of a slower atmospheric passage. The two longest tracks are where the band throws in some additional elements that help to make the album a bit more memorable for me, as “Genocide” incorporates some Middle Eastern sounding instrumentation at the beginning while “When Wolves Are Out to Hunt” leans closer to death/doom territory and sometimes sounds a bit like Celtic Frost. At a compact thirty-three minutes Death Revival is very easy to binge from beginning to end and is consistent, though some of the shorter bursts use similar formulas and don’t quite stand out in the same way as these more ambitious numbers. That’s not likely to matter to those that can’t get enough of neck breaking riffs and that crunchier guitar tone, but this is where Abyssus still has a bit more room left to grow and reach the level of their inspirations.
Vocalist Kostas Analytis has a raspier scream/growl that falls somewhere between John Tardy (Obituary), Martin van Drunen (Asphyx), and Jeff Becerra (Possessed) which upped the appeal of Abyssus’ latest album quite a bit for me. The vocals have some space to breathe in the mix throughout Death Revival, which allows Analytis to tower above the instrumentals in a way that suits Abyssus’ brand of death metal. There are some backing vocals at certain points that are a bit gruffer and make the performance a bit more dynamic, preventing the issue of repetitive growling or screaming that has plagued many a band trying for an old-school death metal sound. Overall, the style may be very familiar, but it’s delivered with the type of intensity and grittiness that fans would expect and that works to Abyssus’ advantage.
Eleven years into their career these guys aren’t drastically changing their approach, but they have tweaked their production values and injected some interesting elements on their longer songs that help them to stand out compared to some of the other bands channeling a similar sound. I do think some of the faster and shorter tracks blend together and don’t quite have that individual wow factor like the classics in the genre do but given the quick run-length this has still been a blast to listen to from beginning to end on a regular basis. Death Revival is available from Transcending Obscurity Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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