Artist: Hibernal Abyss
Country: United Kingdom
Label: Self-Released
Formats: Digital Demo
Year: 2025
‘Demo MMXXV’ is the first demo of Hibernal Abyss, a new Raw Black Metal band from the United Kingdom that is apparently led by multi-instrumentalist Atavistic Passage, who has been featured on these pages before with the project with the same name (Atavistic Passage). In Hibernal Abyss, however, he’s accompanied by a singer who goes by the name of A.B., whose identity is unknown and whom I cannot otherwise put into context.
Musically, Hibernal Abyss doesn’t play a completely different ball game from Atavistic Passage, as both bands largely reside in the Raw Black Metal territories that likes to incorporate some Dungeon Synth elements. Yet, Hibernal Abyss’ Dungeon Synth side is mainly reserved for this demo’s first and last minutes, the music otherwise has quite a stronger sense of urgency. As a result, Hibernal Abyss sounds more profoundly connected in the 90’s Black Metal tradition, but the main selling point of this new band is the refreshing song writing. Not only does it remind of some of Black Metal’s golden years, but if you’d listen to ‘Static Fields’, this demo’s opening tune, you’ll hear an unmistakable and very evident flair of Heavy Metal song writing. While that is surely not something completely new to Black Metal, from the controversial Grand Belial’s Key to the catchy fistbanging tracks of Desaster: Heavy Metal is a celebrated ally. Yet, Hibernal Abyss proves it to be a perfect blend with very traditional Black Metal as well, albeit being more subcutaneous and not with such things as prominent leads or melodies. It is the riffing and the song structures that reveal an almost certain penchant for classic Heavy Metal – if not, then this multi-instrumentalist is just a natural talent with an impeccable sense for song crafting. Either way, ‘Demo MMXXV’ is a debut demo the band can be proud of. Give this a shot, I would say.
