The organization that was Absu before transsexualism destroyed it has been steadily moving away from songs in its works after The Third Storm Of Cythrául, with a brief jaunt into its influences with In The Eyes Of Ioldánach, but at this point it has become merely a riff carnival.
To write a song, you need a central theme, even if not symbolic, metaphorical, or evocative in any way; then, all the other parts need to relate to that, even if in opposition, and the progression of change must also relate. Each part must address the one before it and the one after and the whole, the form of relativity that everyone forgets. This album does not do this, but has riffs that individually could be used to build great or at least interesting songs.
We might call Proscriptor McGovern’s Apsû “purely relativistic metal” because each riff relates to the one before in terms of key and tempo, but not much else, and the riffs do not have any relation to a song theme as a whole. This makes another carnival metal release like Nattens Madrigal, Nemesis Divina, or Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk.
Tags: apsu, Speed Metal
I had high hopes for this release. What a downer.
Holy shit this faggot is going to “carnival metal” into the ground right out of the gate.
Huge disappointment, nothing memorable whatsoever. The loss of Equitant and Shaftiel was the killshot for Absu.
There is one acceptable song on this album…’Esoterically Excoriating the Exoteric’…if metal can give me one additional song that I can listen to, it’s a blessing. Last year all I enjoyed was that Katavasia two song EP…I’ll take what I can get
Shame about the new album.
Does DMU have a particular Absu release in mind as their best work?
Can’t speak for DMU but for me it’s Barathrum V.I.T.R.I.O.L., the last time things really fit together. Tiphareth was not bad but already the band was separating between a desire to be black metal or a less progressive but more technical version of Mercyful Fate.
Interesting. They do have this issue of not fitting under any particular sub-genre and so don’t come to mind as much when picking out the top bands. Will have to give that first album a spin!