Artist: Abhorration
Country: Norway
Label: Invictus Productions
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2024
That Norwegian’s are not exclusively tied to their trademarked Norwegian Black Metal is of course not exactly a secret, yet the non-Black Metal bands from the Scandinavian country that are actually worthy of your time are thin on the ground. Especially when focussing on the rougher and more crude sounding metal territories, there is hardly any band worth mentioning besides the amazing Goatkraft. But apparently, a few lads who are or were previously active in bands like Nekromantheon, Condor, Obliteration, Deathhammer, Avmakt, Black Viper, Black Magic and the underrated Mabuse put their heads together and came to the conclusion that it could all do with a dash dirtier. The result: Abhorration.
Although I really try hard to keep track with all current releases, I was proven that such a thing is quite impossible because Abhorration already released a demo tape in 2021 through Invictus Productions who also reissued it on CD last year. Well, I missed them on both occasions. Well, so much for my good intentions, then. But, would I have checked them, I am sure I would have featured Abhorration on these pages as, frankly, they are able to pull off some hard hitting no-nonsense metal.
In just over half an hour we are treated to some barbaric pummelling that is best described as a more wild and Thrashing ‘Altars Of Madness’. While ‘Demonolatry’ definitely sounds more chaotic, uncontrolled and less refined than anything Morbid Angel ever came up with, it definitely echoes a bit of that relentless energy of Morbid Angel and like-minded peers from yesteryear or later. Which means there is much that might remind of the primal brutality of Necrovore or the furiousness of Angelcorpse. Yet, the necessary remark on Abhorration’s musical DNA is that they never – never – felt the urge to down tune their guitars to blubber-levels, meaning that this is a genuine 80’s sounding product. And while that pre-‘Blessed Are The Sick’ Morbid Angel is practically the lifeline of Abhorration, it wouldn’t do justice to the Norwegians to keep on bringing up the resemblance with the genre titans from Tampa.
It might not offer the same sort of oomph or devastating heaviness as most of the bands in the genre, I would be surprised that people who enjoy their fair share of total annihilating and early Slayer-infused Black/Death Metal will not be enamoured by Abhorration. Angelcorpse is a bands that creeps up to the borders of Bestial Black/Death Metal, but ‘Demonolatry’ offers a similar ferociousness and overall violence of bands like Bestial Warlust or even very early Krisiun, including the youthful and infectious energy.
It should be quite clear that ‘Demonolatry’ is not meant as an album to please the connoisseurs of the progressive music, pretty much on the very contrary. This is Possessed on vitriol or Morbid Angel carrying rabies. No finesse, just unadulterated violent rampage.
