Album Review: Abscession - Rot of Ages
Reviewed by Sam Jones
So throughout maybe the last three months I’ve been seeing this record plastered about more and more on social media and the various record labels that I follow as well. Now admittedly I can be little iffy when it comes to Swedish Death Metal as the outcomes can be wildly different as to how successful a work of Swedish Death Metal feels. But we have here Abscession, formed in Ostergotland, Sweden back in 2009, where they released their first Demo a year later. It wouldn’t be another five years, in 2015, however until the light of day would finally see their first full length album titled Grave Offerings. We would receive a new Single a year later, one that also happens to be included on this album, however the band would go quiet for several years. That was until earlier this year where Abscession at last made the announcement they would release their sophomore album offering titled Rot Of Ages, in mid-November of this year; almost seven years following on from their first record release. I went in pretty inquisitively, I may not be a hundred percent behind every Swedish death metal release that’s come my way but this album has seen a lot of marketing and so I felt it was only fair that I gave Rot Of Ages its due to see just exactly what the noise was about. So, here we have Abscession’s Rot Of Ages, their second album and my first time listening to them.
Well straight off the bat we get an idea as to what kind of Swedish death metal the band are giving us. Their primary guitar tone isn’t hidden from us, it’s a buzzsaw tone that so many iconic Swedish bands have used however what sets Abscession apart from those, and even the newer generation of Swedish death metal acts, is how the guitar tone feels like it’s been reinforced by a hefty bass presence. When we think of a band like Dismember who famously sported a buzzsaw tone of a particularly ripping quality, Abscession do something fairly similar here except it’s like the band have outlined the shape of their riffs. As a result, the guitar work comes off with a more fearsome, punching aesthetic so we don’t feel like the riffs are just slicing through us. They create a much more potent, clenched fist effect that’s coupled with a production which has managed to give them the room to move around and yet still restrain their ferocity just enough to give this record a grounded feel. Listening to this album feels like you’re getting your body wrecked, but you’re still able to feel the Earth beneath you.
Speaking of which the drums have this peculiarly strong bass presence happening as well, especially when the band incorporate their bass drums into the mix. Now of course the general kit has its moments to shine and you’re able to feel whatever strikes the Tom-toms or cymbals manage to convey, and yet it’s these Bass drum onslaughts that really invoke the true power of the drums going into the songwriting. But I also liked how it’s not just a one-shot style of drumming either, experiencing these drums is like manoeuvring between steady and level environments and sheer canyons before finding ourselves plummeting to certain doom. There are periods, brief as they are, whereby the drums undergo stronger blast beat intervals and it must be said that they really help to drive home the malevolent power and more concrete-dense soundscape that Abscession have in store for you.
In terms of pacing, I appreciate that the band have taken time here and there to really break things down in places not merely to create a greater variety of tempos but to also give the audience some room to breathe. Now these segments aren’t necessarily long and they’re not that numerous to speak of when we understand what the primary goal of Abscession is here. Yet in spite of this main avenue of destruction and punching guitar tone the band happily champion, these small periods of more intricate and somewhat melodic pieces really help to flesh out the record more so than if they hadn’t been included, which would have brought the album down to a simpler, two-dimensional product. What I liked about the band’s diversity in tempo and intensity however was how the band’s power never diminished, nor did these segments feel like something just thrown in for the sake of it or with little thought applied to them. It’s very deliberate and the fact that the band do incorporate them in some way right from the start of the record indicates a long-term planning and clear understanding of what they wanted their track structures to give audiences. In fact a track like “When The Guillotine Falls” is mostly comprised of the usual Swedish death metal flair you come to expect from the album, that’s why it’s closing two minutes utilising these soaring clean vocals, melodic guitar sections and a synthesiser that ends the track (we’ll return to that synthesiser element soon enough) is arguably one of the most eye-opening moments on the album: it forces you to pay attention. It honestly makes this track in particular a striking piece during the record and may be one of the most frighteningly cathartic songs I’ve heard in some time.
What really surprised though was the inclusion of piano and clean, soaring vocals as especially noticeable and enjoyable in their title track. It’s such a sudden and yet invited change-up to what we often perceive as the standard Swedish death metal formula. For the rest of that track we can hear the piano coming through various angles and there’s also the final closing track too; utilising a beautiful synthesiser that actually acts not merely as a small closer to the album, additionally conjoined traditionally by a standard death metal attack, but as an actual dedicated, synthesiser-led track. It sounds like something that would close out a horror movie like The Exorcist or Halloween or A Nightmare On Elm Street. I’m genuinely impressed they would commit this closing track of their record to a synthesiser-led piece rather than hit us one more time with a burst of power, if anything though the choice to include such a serene and ethereal track at the end highlights, and heightens, the assault we have received throughout the rest of the album and frankly by the time it was done I felt like I could play this record all over again from beginning to end. If that doesn’t mark a quality album conclusion, I don’t know what does.
In conclusion, this album genuinely surprised me. I was a little unsure whether I really wanted to pick this album up for a review however I am absolutely thankful that I ended up doing so. This is Swedish death metal through and through, however it falls into none of the traps or pitfalls that I feel can so easily befall on a record of Swedish death metal. This is extreme metal of this style approached with great effort and then, pulled off extremely well. The band manage to balance sheer power with a necessary and diverse variety of tempos and ferocities. Some tracks are tour de force obliterations, others are more serene while some have a combination of the two. The inclusion of synthesisers, piano, cleaner vocals also establish a marked impact on the band’s performance too, elevating Abscession’s Rot Of Ages to a shining example of what Swedish death metal can be, and where it could go in the future. The aforementioned album closer too may have been perceived as a risky endeavour in the recording studio, but I feel like it’ll pay off in droves as it calms you right down and gives you a satisfying ending to what does feel like a journey through their record. All in all it’s absolutely one of the greater offerings of Swedish extreme metal not just for 2021 but from the last couple of years put together, and I’m definitely going to keep my eyes open for anything that comes my way from Abscession from here on out.
