Abigor 'Supreme And Immortal Is The Art Of The Devil' review

ABIGOR

Supreme And Immortal Is The Art Of The Devil EP

Avantgarde Music

Press releases can be little funny bastards, more often than not. Case in point: Avantgarde's Abigor one. No matter what words you would want to use, it's crystal clear those 2 songs are remnants of a failed project from 1997, and all possible 2013 tweaking, re-mixing and newly recorded vocal lines couldn't help turning those from turd to gold.

Right, Silenius is back on the vocal duties. Big deal - those vocals largely fall flat, much in the same vein when Bethlehem tried something similar. The music pretty much epitomizes what was wrong with the more “advanced” and “experimental” (quasi-/ex-) black metal bands in the second part of the '90s: No soul, heart or real dark passion is present. Stiff, in a word. Layered with synths overpowering the thin sounding guitars. Anemic, pseudo-industrial drumming. You know the drill.

At any rate, Abigor (Who, in 20 years, I've never heard anyone, fellow metalhead or musician, citing as a fave band) is here again with a newly released 7” nobody asked for and a new album to follow. “Abigor is, and still makes, the history of european black metal” (sic). At least there's no mention what kind of history it is. 3.5 / 10

Abigor

Xasthur 'Nightmares At Dawn'

XASTHUR

'Nightmares At Dawn'

(Lo-Fi Creatures / Avantgarde Music)

Hearing this album the problem that I faced was how to deal with it: as a fan of Xasthur or as a fan of the DSBM and ambient sound? As a fan of Xasthur, this compilation gives a clear and complete picture of the one-man band’s history in the black metal scene, creating a depressive world. The songs depict Malefic’s way from the pure suicidal sound towards more ambient songs; thus this album cannot be easily heard. As a fan of BSBM and ambient black metal, this compilation is rather disappointing. On the one hand there are atmospheric songs, creating an absolutely horror and haunting scene, helping the listener to seek, find and reveal one’s dark feelings and emotions, with clear, amazing, and full of sickness vocalist moments, as in the case of ‘Losing Hand/Redemption’, ‘Society wants to Die’ and of course the title track. On the other hand, however, there are boring and monotonous songs, with no alterations in their style, where the vocals remind a man forgotten in a well, since the sound is like tape recorded in the early 1980s, such as ‘Degenerate Uprising’ and ‘Human Flotsam’. The re-recordings of ‘Suicide In Dark Serenity’, ‘Prison Of Mirrors’ and ‘Screaming At Forgotten Fears’ have not anything new to say to the listeners, whereas the cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘A National Acrobat’ is indifferent. . A quick note for the fans: ‘Nightmares At Dawn’ will be released in a digipack edition limited to only 100 copies, which will come along with a T-shirt, where the normal edition will be released in a jewelcase. As a result of the above, there will be two grades: the first as a fan of the band and the second as a fan of the DSBM and ambient black metal scene. Rating: 8/10 and 6/10 (leniently)

(Dark Alice's nightingale)

(This compilation album of odds and ends is allegedly Xasthur's posthumous swansong - ED) 

Xasthur