Review by Lawrence Stillman on October 9, 2024.

After the phenomenal debut that is Illuminate The Path, An Abstract Illusion returns with another banger six years later. This album from them marks another masterpiece, blending atmospheric black metal with the speed, production, and songwriting conventions of progressive death metal. While it borrows many of the tropes that atmospheric/progressive extreme metal bands used, they manage to put their own spin on those same tropes, creating something very unique and special.

The album seems to walk the same path that Ne Obliviscaris and Edge Of Sanity treaded, from the blend of non-stop intensity brought on by their instruments to the fact that this album is 7 songs tied together as an hour-long epic (just not lyrically). Despite that, no songs here sound identical, nor do they repeat the same structures, which is a criticism I had with Crimson 1. The songs here are full of blast beats with some calmer, subdued sections in between to give the listener a breather before drowning them in another round of blast beats and guitars. But these blast beats do not sound aggressive or threatening; instead, they sound cathartic and hypnotizing, which is something rarely done right by atmospheric metal bands. It gave the album a much more solemn and melancholic feel, which is sorely needed in the genre.

One thing I like about the album is the use of keyboards. In this album, they serve as a more hidden presence that feeds the listener with atmospheric passages, but occasionally they also give us some lead melodies when the guitars are not in play. While not to the extent of keyboard magic like Regnum Caelorum Et Gehenna, it is still quite enjoyable since the main show is focused on guitars, bass, vocals, and drums. Speaking of drums, the blast beats here dominated most of the album's run time, which is an increase from the previous album, where they sounded closer to old Opeth. While this type of instrumentation can be found on Ne Obliviscaris, it does remove most of the problems I have with Ne Obliviscaris' approach to their musicianship when combined with blast beats, and most of their music just does not mesh well with blast beats. But here they absolutely do blend well, and what a combo that is. The guitars here are drowned in post-rock and shoegaze effects, which gives it a layer of atmosphere that so many atmospheric metal bands lacked while not sacrificing the guitar melodies that are driving the song forward. The bass here is quite buried when the guitars are in play and thus drowned out by the wall of sound and effects, but once one of the guitars is removed, it manifests itself to be an excellent tone-setting piece with its grinding bass creating a droning sound for the keyboards, drums, and vocals to ride on.

While it was not my AOTY 2022, it was very close to taking that spot. It lacked Mogari's varying insanity and the myriad of emotions it can evoke through its songs and storytelling, which made it stand head and shoulders above most extreme metal records. But when taken as a culmination of what Edge Of Sanity and Ne Obliviscaris do best, it definitely did an excellent job at creating a new benchmark for atmospheric and progressive death metal, redefining what the genre can do, just as Iapetus did for progressive/melodic death metal in 2019. Kardashev's "Liminal Rite" does not even hold a candle to this album.

Highlights: 'Tear Down This Holy Mountain', 'In The Heavens Above, You Will Become A Monster', 'This Torment Has No End, Only New Beginnings'

Rating: 10 out of 10

Review by Vanass on June 29, 2020.

Vvitchblood was originally recorded and released in 2017 but was available only on cassette. This not-so-pleasant Canadian project is the work of a single man with an excessive obsession with Mesopotamian mythology, known by his stage name "Xûlthys". In recent years, Xûlthys has been quite busy with a number of projects like Chaoist, Drenglyndr, Flešš, Arcane Cavern, all of which have one thing in common except Flešš; they are one-man projects that utilize a very raw sound. Unnecessarily obscure and sometimes eccentric qualities are beneficial to any musical endeavor, but once they are maximized and pushed to the very edge of a nihilistic worldview, the result will be completely cringy and uncomfortable to listen to.

The intro track is also the title track and starts with a strange synthesizer sound, which would definitely have its place in a low-budget horror movie. After one minute of this overly generic and inappropriate intro, a blast beat starts to dominate the sonic environment, followed by a decent raw guitar sound (decent by black metal standards of course). Sadly, what could have been solid raw black metal is interrupted by vocals that seem to have been recorded with an absurd number of additional effects in a basement and too close to the microphone. Also, the majority of the vocals just sound like distorted whispers.

The second track features a sound shift that dominates most of the rest of the album; the guitar sound drifts into experimental waters that have an awful amateurish odor, and synths are incorporated into the sound to add emphasis to the atmosphere. For some reason, the drum sound also changes completely, and although it sounds more organic, it doesn't bear any resemblance to the amount of energy on the first track. Not a single interesting drum pattern appears on the whole album, and the general impression is simply that the drumming is highly unenthusiastic. It also sounds amateurish, as there is always a delay in the tempo changes compared to the guitars.

Without any interesting riffs, without noteworthy drum parts and with a terrible production, the emphasis is on the atmosphere, as already mentioned. Thus, this album can bear the title of background music, but whether intentionally or not, one has to say that the atmosphere is grotesque and generally causes an unpleasant feeling when listening. It is undoubtedly one of those rare albums that are completely devoid of any beauty and could, therefore, be qualified as nihilistic art, but given the occult themes and the mere fact that madness probably sounds like this, it is hard to believe that this is the primary intention.

Granted, it sounds highly unusual, and you may be attracted by the obscure sound, but if you listen carefully you will notice that artists such as Xasthur, Maugrim or Intristare have already experimented with similar atmospheres. This does not mean that Bašmu ripped off these bands, it does not even mean that this project is directly inspired by them; what it does mean is that several artists have already used the same production and recording methods and came out with a similar sound, so Vvitchblood does not even have a charm of originality and obscurity.

Vvitchblood is what every abominable thought sounds like; disharmonic, grotesque and simply depressing. Without any quality to carry the album or any positive aspect to mention, this album is definitely not recommendable.

Rating: 0 out of 10