Having only heard Wormrot before, I have little idea of what Singapore offers in terms of its musical exports other than colossal walls of filthy noise and aggression. Taking the chance to learn more, I was lucky enough to land this debut full-length offering from Abolition A.D – a four piece sludge attack who strive to create music filled with rage and chaos. The artwork, designed by Malaysian artist Amy Hamdan is terrific, it brings a hellish touch which helps visualise the chaos contained on the album and clocking in at twenty-five minutes in length, it pulls no punches.
Opening up with “Enchanted Land”, the heavily distorted riffs create a wall of sound which doesn’t hit you instantly. Instead it steadily builds up, like a 70’s era Black Sabbath song from the classic 1971-1973 period. The vocals are harshly growled and fit with the ominous sound which starts to pick up as it goes on. The grind element keeps the intensity and the slow, tortured sounding guitar solo adds to the atmosphere. “Ouroboros” follows next, in the same way as its image, a snake eating its own tail symbolises a cyclic existence, the track starts off just like the last one does. As the slow paced intro trails off, the song kicks in to full gear earlier than the previous one with a full on, frantic paced assault. The buzzing guitars and crushing drums with the growled vocals give an aggressive edge to the song and midway through it switches into a full on sludge groove.
“Primal Fear” follows almost instantly with a seamless transition. Keeping up the intensity and pounding song, it flows into a slower paced groove. The colossal riffs and drums keep the cascade of chaos coming and soon enough, the pace picks up once again. The guitar break, punctuated by stabbing drums builds the pace up before it all kicks in with full force. The rhythm section shines through in the latter half of the song as it shifts between the metal feel and the hardcore-punk, changing the tempo and keeping you on your feet throughout the whole track. “Interlude” is up next and it starts off with a slow drum based intro which is joined by a pounding bassline. The rapidly buzzing guitars join in next over the mammoth sized groove from the rhythm section as it continues with the slow pace. The short instrumental track does exactly what it is intended to do – breaks the album into two separate parts and it paves the way perfectly for the following track.
The title track follows, and it kicks off with an almost black-metal feel in the vein of mayhem. The fast paced, frantic assault with the harshly growled vocals is crammed into just under ninety-seconds of intensity and just as soon as it’s started, it’s over and onto the next one – “V.I.P”. The song comes off the previous one with a slower pace. Its drawn out intro with ringing notes, droning chords and simple drums paves the way for another huge wall of slow paced sludge. With the same crushing intensity of the previous tracks, it slowly crushes everything in its path before it picks up the pace slightly with a punky-feel section. The increase in tempo allows the drums to shine through once more with a cascade of symbols and fills before it crashes right back into the thundering, slow paced section to end.
“Medieval minds” closes the album and it’s the longest track on it. Opening up with a howl of feedback and a simple guitar line, the song finally gets going around a minute in as the rest of the band joins. The pounding bass and drums underneath the guitar line creates a dark mood which leads into a harmony section which finally leads up to the verse. The vocals are still as harsh as ever and the song slowly stomps on with little guitar and drum fills here and there, before it explodes to life once more with the hardcore feel to it. The song teases between fast and slow paced and the massive sounding breakdown underneath the guitar solo just over halfway through the song is fantastic. The intense sounding headbang riff after the solo brings the song into the final stretch and the album fades out into silence, much like how it started, only without the howls of feedback.
“After Death Before Chaos” is a promising debut offering. It’s got the right mix of sludge to hardcore to keep it interesting but it doesn’t have that many stand out moments. It just sets about doing what the band want it to do – make filthy noise which is uncomfortable to listen to, but enjoyable at the same time.
(6.5/10 Fraggle)
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