Abbath by Abbath

Black metal guitarist/vocalist Abbath is best known as being one of the founding members as well as the principal song-writer for the influential 2nd wave black metal band Immortal. Despite the band's history and contribution to the genre, they've split up multiple times over the last decade, and last year Abbath decided it was time to go his separate way. Upon leaving the group, he announced his intentions to form a band of his own, and now less than a year later his eponymous band have released their eponymous debut, Abbath. (Ego much?)

At it's core, what this project provides is some very loud, raw, fast paced, frantic black metal. Abbath recruits bassist King ov Hell (of God Seed fame) and drummer Creature to join him throughout the album, and their contributions are quite nice. The record opens with a bang, as To War is one of my favorite cuts on the album for it's brutal guitar riff and showcasing of Abbath's retched vocals. It's hard to say the former Immortal front man has lost a step after leaving the band, as he still sounds great on this project, and proves he can continue on without his former bandmates.

While Abbath isn't anything new or innovative, I never would have expected it to be. It's strengths lay in the hard-hitting nature of the music being played, and it's an album meant to be played loud. The weaker parts of the track-listing, for me personally, are when the band slow down. The outro of the second track Winter Bane is an example of this, as the band begin sounding almost classic-rock like, until the climax in the last 15 seconds where a loud shriek brings the song to it's conclusion. The following track, however, picks things right back up as Ashes of the Damned is another favorite of mine thanks to a chorus that incorporates a very interesting use of horns. It's the only cut on the album where the band really take the time to play with any other instrumentation, and while it does pay off, perhaps it's the lack of it throughout the rest of the album that makes it so enjoyable on this particular cut.

As the album comes to a close, it does slow down the pacing a bit once again for Root of the Mountain, which is probably my least favorite track on the album. It's one of the slower cuts as I mentioned, and fails to build up to much, even when the pace picks up about half way through. Fortunately, once again, as soon as the album starts to drift off the trio manages to draw me back in with the closing track Eternal. Much like the way the album opened, it closes with yet another chaotic 4+ minute onslaught of blast beats and lightning fast guitar riffs, something I can always get behind.

As stated earlier, in no ways does this album bring anything new to the table, but that doesn't mean it fails. If you're a fan of Immortal, or even just enjoy raw and heavy black metal, the album is worth checking out. If Abbath can continue to put out music like this, he'll be fine without Immortal.

Favorite Tracks: To War, Ashes of the Damned, Eternal

Least Favorite Tracks: Root of the Mountain

Rating: 3.5/5