The year is ending, the days grow shorter, the sun sets earlier, and death metal gets more gruesome. Newcomers Abyssal Rift have dropped their debut release in the form of Extirpation Dirge (Sentient Ruin Laboratories). Six tracks spanning over thirty-six minutes is the perfect snack-sized introduction the metal world needs to get their first taste of the Ohio group.
“The Plague” starts off Extirpation Dirge with an immediate storm of shrieking guitar leads and tremolo riffs over d-beat drumming that kicks off the audible circle-pit early. A little after three minutes in, an ominous synth interlude plays and then the song kicks back in with old school slower guitar riffs and overall the tempo comes way down to close out the track.
“The Magister” shows more of the other side of Abyssal Rift with regards to more synth work and odd chord progressions for the first half of the song. Slowly, the drums start to pick up as do the guitars, while returning to odd chord progressions. The chant-like vocals are a nice touch ahead of returning to the more traditional death metal sound in the second half.
“The Mourning” is the perfect track to close the album as it pulls out a lot of final boss vibes, especially with the feeling of impending doom in the intro as well as the leads in the verse. As if something massive has just crawled out of a cave and is heading towards you, teeth bared in almost a grin. The ending of the track is back to that straight forward OSDM again with blast beats on the drums and uncomfortable guitar leads, as if the battle is winding down and the villain is trying everything to conquer the hero.
Abyssal Rift came out of literally just that and started swinging for the fences on their first release. Extirpation Dirge does not overstay its welcome and certainly left me with the feeling of wanting more. Enough variety of different levels of experimenting outside of the confines of death metal really helps make this album stand out from the pack.
Buy the album here:
https://sentientruin.bandcamp.com/album/extirpation-dirge
7 / 10
TIM LEDIN