My first introduction to Abhorration was their live gig in Gothenburg, October fifth 2024. They did a show in Sweden to promote their debut album ‘Demonolatry’, which was published nine days prior on Invictus Records. I was merely spending the weekend in Gothenburg, and although the city had a lot to offer, Abhorration’s gig rose to the highlight of that weekend! Now, few months later, I’m honoured to share my view on ‘Demonolatry’, but it is a challenge to stay objective with their great live performance still freshly present on my memory.
Enough about me, this is about Abhorration. This four-piece band from Oslo, Norway is focussed upon bringing back the old school values of late 80’s Extreme Metal. The most obvious blue-print for ‘Demonolatry’ must have been ‘Altars of Madness’. This becomes clear when listening to the guitars, which are played at rapid fire but still remain memorable. The riffs constantly change from being highly energetic old school Death Metal, to the fastest of old school Thrash Metal. Throughout the album, the guitars leave little room to breathe. On and on goes the onslaught of hard hitting, fast and earworm riffing. Perfectly accentuating the little hooks and licks are the drums. The drums are played with high accuracy and velocity. Where the guitars and bass slice up everything in its way, it’s the drums that give the ultimate death blow. Abhorration’s vocalist Magnus add to the band’s sound his intense raspy high screams, which sound like a foul combination of Mille Petrozza and Peter Tägtgren.
Another thing I adore about ‘Demonolatry’ is its sound. The production is absolutely amazing, being both clear and raw at the same time. The vocals, bass, guitars and drums are all clearly audible and feel unprocessed. The first thing that struck me the most is how similar the CD sounds to what I’ve heard during their gig. ‘Demonolatry’ could have been recorded live in a small venue or rehearsal place, were it not for every instrument being clearly discernible from each other. This is how every current Extreme Metal band playing old school Extreme Metal should sound. Forget the whole resurgence of OSDM bands harkening back to the Morrisound/Sunlight studios sound, focus on producing this production job instead!
I can’t recommend ‘Demonolatry’ enough to every fan of Thrash/Black/Death Metal. There’s so much to enjoy on this record. It’s more than just plain Morbid Angel worship. It’s got the heaviest of old school Thrash Metal, the intensity of Black Metal and the versatility of Death Metal. All neatly packaged in a raw and fleshed out late 1980’s sound. I’ve seen them live once, I certainly hope I’m going to see them live again… and so should you! (Appeleon)
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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. (FelixS)
