AN NCS PREMIERE: ABYSSUS — “MORBID INHERITANCE”

Last year brought the release of the excellent debut album (Into the Abyss) of a Greek death metal band named Abyssus, a group that began life in 2011 as the solo project of Athenian vocalist and musician Kostas Analytis and now also includes guitarist Panos Gkourmpaliotis and bass-player Kostas Ragiadakos. And next month we will have more Abyssus music to enjoy as Transcending Obscurity Classics releases Once Entombed…, a compilation of all the music by Abyssus that preceded the new album. Today we bring you a song from the new compilation called “Morbid Inheritance”.

Once Entombed… includes the band’s 2014 split with crust grinders Slaktgrav, their 2014 EP Summon the Dead, (those songs were also included in a split that same year with the Czech band Morbider), the songs from their 2013 split with Greek death metal compatriots Nocturnal Vomit, and finally, the band’s 2012 debut EP Monarch to the Kingdom of the Dead. The music will be presented in reverse chronological order, with the latest material appearing first. It provides a history of how the band began and how their music has evolved — and you get a thrilling and varied ride every step of the way.

I’m sure we’ve all experienced the challenging fun of trying to explain what death metal is to people who don’t know much more about it than the name of the genre. You get those puzzling looks when you tell them that music makes you feel vibrantly alive. And that’s the talent of Abyssus — they take classic elements of a classic metal genre and create music that sounds full of life and bursting with arcane energy.

But this is also death metal, and so “Morbid Inheritance”, for example, oozes an atmosphere of pestilential disease and sinister threat at the same time as its galloping riffs and needling guitar leads are amping the adrenaline levels. The raw, howling vocals sound like a banshee horde, and the molten soloing writhes like a viper nest. The spirit of the genre is indeed alive and well in the hands of this power trio.

For more info about Once Entombed…, including pre-order opportunities, go here, where you can also listen to two other killer songs from the album:

https://transcendingobscurity.bandcamp.com/album/once-entombed-death-metal

https://www.facebook.com/Abyssus-144338552349700/