2015 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 guitarists Panos Gkourmpaliotis and Christos Liakos, bass-player Kostas Ragiadakos, and drummer Jan Westermann.
That album was preceded by a pair of EPs and a trio of splits, all of which were eventually released in a compilation entitled Once Entombed… Additional splits followed the release of the album, and in 2018 Death In Pieces Records released an Abyssus EP named Unleash the Storm from which we proudly premiered a track (“Operation Ranch Hand”) that ultimately made our list of 2018’s Most Infectious Extreme Metal Songs (here).
2019 saw the release of yet another Abyssus split, a four-way conspiracy among Abyssus, Obsecration, Soulskinner, and Malicious Silence under the name Sign of the Covenant of Death. And now we’re in the midst of a new year and it’s time for more music from this tremendous death metal killing machine from Greece.
On July 6th, Death In Pieces Records will release a new Abyssus EP entitled Relics of the Past. Like the last EP, Unleash the Storm, it includes two new Abyssus songs and covers of three others, and we are once again handling a premiere from the EP. It’s the title track, “Relics of the Past“.
Kostas Analytis introduces the new EP with these words:
The Relics of the Past EP is the twin brother of the Unleash the Storm EP, a sequel and of course a prototype for our new album. Two new old school metal tracks and three cover songs included by some favorite bands. Hellhammer’s “Aggressor” is a hymn that reminds us of the glorious past; Possessed’s “Death Metal” is a tribute to the fathers of our music; and Terrorizer’s “Condemned System” is a blasting storm from a memorable album. Enjoy maniacs!
The next album, Death Revival, is projected for release in September 2020, and it’s one we will be looking forward to eagerly. But for now, let’s consider the title track from Relics of the Past.
The song is firmly rooted in the poisonous and putrescent cemetery soil of old school death metal. As Kostas Analytis howls the lyrics in a raw and ravaging voice that echoes within the skull, full of ghastly menace and crazed violence, Abyssus charge forward on the back of a galloping rhythm while cutting into the listener with the blades of a vicious buzzing riff. When the pace drops into a stalking cadence, the music moans in the tones of the ghastly death metal horrors of old.
Things get even creepier and more ghoulish near the end, when a slithering and shrieking guitar solo reverberates and then slowly pulses and wails like a spectral siren, as if announcing the return of the cadaverous dead from their catacombs.
It’s a grisly piece of work, and one that’s sure to appeal to fans of rotten and rapacious OSDM.
To repeat, Death In Pieces will release Relics of the Past on July 6th, in a CD edition. For more info about how to acquire it, keep an eye on these locations for further announcements:
ABYSSUS:
https://www.facebook.com/Abyssus666/
DEATH IN PIECES RECORDS:
https://www.facebook.com/deathinpiecesrecs
TRACK LIST:
01-In the League with Evil
02-Relics of the Past
03-Aggressor (Hellhammer cover)
04-Death Metal (Possessed cover)
05-Condemned System (Terrorizer cover)