About a year ago I reviewed the debut album of Abject Mentor, a Mexican Death Metal band that was formed back in 2020 and previously released a handful of demo/single recordings. I concluded that the album will not make history, but that sometimes it is just fine as it is: a decent Death Metal record without any bells and whistles.
Well, we are about a year later now and in preparation for the review for this new EP I listened back to ‘Abominaciones’ and, fortunately enough, I am still behind the words that I then entrusted to these digital pages. And, frankly, the same sort of words could be used again to describe this new EP. ‘Bajo La Sombra Del Tormento’ for the most part sounds pretty much in line with the band’s debut album: plain and simple Death Metal with a bit of groove, some tempo changes and even a little guitar leads here and there.
In comparison, these three new songs (not counting the intro) are a bit more groove-oriented and sound a tends to lean a bit more towards a Grinding fashion. Besides the more chugging and grinding guitars, there also seems to be a bit more emphasis on the melodic Heavy Metal-tinged leads as well. Most notably, though, and I am not sure whether it is because of their Mexican background, but especially the last track, ‘Escoria Social (Puta Bastardo)’ which roughly translates to ‘Social Scum (Bastard Whore)’, has a bit of a swinging Brujeria flair to it.
No. Again, Abject Mentor will not change the course of Death Metal history, but just like I said in the previous review: I am quite sure these four guys have a lot of fun cranking out these tunes. And having said that, I rather give this a listen than to the boring stuff that bands like Massacre or Paganizer are trying to shove down our throats. It might not be all that much better, but at least it sounds genuine and unpretentious.
