I thoroughly enjoyed this US band’s self-titled debut released in 2022, it was packed with blackened ferocity and this follow up continues that style extremely successfully. The opening tune ‘Emergence’ is very short and sort of acts like a prolonged intro sequence towards ‘The Inexorable Earth’ which follows it. The use of blasted sections on the opener seems to tease and lure you in before the unmitigated detonation that erupts subsequently on its follower. Abhoria temper all their songs with myriad of riffs and hooks and here the band likes to indulge their passion of rampant tempo deviations alongside the bombarding blasted segues. With a demonic and beastly vocal style everything is rounded off nicely as the album continues with ‘The Well’.
‘The Well’ has a more melodic riposte, its eerie riffing conjuring images of desolation and foreboding as its dread filled aura is crammed with atmosphere unleashing a fine double kick barrage in its final section. Isolated guitar work adorns the start of ‘Within Our Dominion’ and strikingly you get the indication that the band has reined in the speed somewhat for songs of a more thoughtful and potentially ambitious nature. I did like the slower tracks on offer here, they exhibit a steadfast malfeasance that penetrates the album’s fabric, though they do like to unveil some outright blazing violence too as on ‘They Hunt At Night’. Comparably there are similarities to Behemoth on the speedier tunes and latter era Immortal on the slower tracks, but all possess impending devastation.
‘Devour’ with its sequestered guitar opening is saturated in emotion, its palpable despairing bleakness channels the song into implacable ominousness courtesy of the fine guitar work but also the barbaric vocal display. Flexing its obsidian muscles is ‘The Foundling’ where again the band uses a slower riff base to craft malevolent melancholy infused with an eeriness and before I knew it I had scribbled down Morbid Angel as something this sounds like, though the sound is far harsher of course.
Blasting into rotted life is ‘Ghost In The Smoke’ where its enraging power is catalysed by the superb drum work but also the way the song weaves through a raft of tempo changes that are very subtly done as you almost think the track is one continuous blastfest but it is not. As the longest tune closer ‘Winter’s Embrace’ is a fine climax to the album. The use of slower riffing is prevalent once again but where the other slower tunes resided within mid-tempo realms the closer sees shifting intensities as the low mix double bass acts like the causeway for the predicted riff change which materialises with brutalising majesty about two-thirds in, and ensures the tune typifies what Abhoria are about.
An excellent second album from Abhoria, one to ensure they stay firmly within the radar of blackened death metallers worldwide with considerable ease.
(8/10 Martin Harris)
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