It’s a little hard to believe that, counting their demo days, Absu has been around for a full 20 years.  Impressive to say the least, and while never ultra-prolific, Proscriptor and company have constructed a solid discography over that time culminating in undoubtedly one of the best American Black Metal albums ever recorded in 2001’s Tara.  Eight years later we were graced with the excellent self-titled comeback album, and now comes Abzu, which doesn’t quite capture the greatness of their best work, but is a very pleasing burner of an album that goes a good distance toward proving that the band has plenty left to offer.

Considerably shorter in length than its predecessor, Abzu also offers a tighter, more streamlined approach.  This renewed sense of fierce, thrashy urgency evokes Tara’s frenetic spirit and will really appeal to fans looking for a sort of continuation of that legendary album’s intensity.  Album opener “Earth Ripper” starts off with one of Proscriptor’s unintentionally humorous young-Tom Araya-falsetto yowls before exploding into some frenzied, near-barbaric thrash.  “Circles of the Oath” features some absolutely killer riffs and interesting shifts that solidly land the track amongst the absolute best they’ve yet to record.  “Abraxas Connexus” contains more deliciously speedy, bordering on unhinged riffing, and in an interesting twist, lengthy, multi-faceted closing track “A Song for Ea” includes some dissonant, evil sounding Deathspell Omega-inspired black metal that had me double checking to see what band/song I was listening to more than once.  As usual, I’m sure Proscriptor’s lyrics are positively profound, but I’ve never been one to care much about attempting to decipher cryptic meanings, and as such have no clue as to what the hell he is ever talking about.

Abzu is definitely an album that instantly appealed to me as both a sizable fan of the band, and as a fan of sharp thrashy black metal in general, and my appreciation for it, and for the unique, exciting music Absu bestows upon us continues to increase.

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  Earth Ripper
2.  Circles of the Oath
3.  Abraxas Connexus
4.  Skyring in the Spirit Vision
5.  Ontologically, It Became
      Time & Space
6.  A Song for Ea

Total playing time:  36:48

Release Date: October 4th, 2011
Label: Candlelight Records

Absu - Abzu

Reviewer: J. A. Burt

January 12, 2012