AN NCS PREMIERE: ABYSSE – “ARCHITECTURE OF BONES”

That is such a cool photo on the cover of the new album by Abysse. It’s what first got me interested in the music, and the music turned out to be very interesting as well.

The name of the album, as you can see, is I Am the Wolf, and it follows this French band’s debut full-length En(d)grave in 2012 and three shorter releases dating back to 2006. Three songs from the album have premiered previously, and today we’re bringing you a fourth — a track called “Architecture of Bones“.

There is no clean singing on this album. There is in fact no singing at all. But I’m pretty sure you won’t miss it; I certainly didn’t.

The grinding bass notes that open the song begin the process of breaking you down, and the skeletal deconstruction process continues as the drums begin to rumble and the riffs begin to groan. When the band eventually kick the song into full gear, the rhythms become damned compulsive. There’s a slight interlude driven by tribal pounding before writhing guitar chords reenter the picture, followed by a piercing solo.

There’s more hammering yet to come, but I felt (sadly) that the song came to an end before Abysse had finished the demolition job. The music is so catchy and interesting that I would have been quite happy for it to continue.

But I guess when you’re only complaint is that a song is too short, that’s a good sign, isn’t it?

I Am the Wolf will be released on February 12, and can be pre-ordered now, on CD, vinyl, and digitally, via the links below. Three other songs from the album have premiered previously, and I’m including a Bandcamp stream of those right below “Architecture of Bones”. They’re damned good, too.

Bandcamp: http://abysse.bandcamp.com/
Shop: http://hyperurl.co/AbysseShop
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/abyssegroupe