When a new band pops up containing members from a variety of diverse backgrounds, it’s always worth checking them out. Toronto five-piece Abyss boasts veterans from the Canadian death, thrash and powerviolence scenes and have pooled their collective knowledge and experience into Heretical Anatomy (20 Buck Spin), a ripping tribute to old-school extreme metal that contains plenty of sneering punk attitude and knows how to hold your attention as well as bludgeon your ears into submission.
Clocking in at a mere twenty minutes in length, Heretical Anatomy wields a nasty, serrated guitar tone that could cut through flesh with ease. Aided by a bulldozing rhythm section and a vocalist who sounds like he’d stab your eyes out after robbing your wallet, the smattering of tracks on offer here draw heavily from late 80’s death and grind with Repulsion being a clear influence, especially in the shorter tracks such as the deranged violence of ‘Flesh Cult’ and the pounding, mutant punk battering of ‘Nightmares in Skin.’ Elsewhere, the rotting corpse of Carcass looms large in the feral Symphonies of Sickness (Earache Records) worship of ‘The Atonement’ which is tailor made for a surging pit in the Maryland Death Fest parking lot.
It’s not just knuckle-headed, gore obsessed fare either; several raucous guitar solos flare up to prove just how much fun the members are having, while the doomy dirge of ‘Thrall of the Elder Gods’ is pure old school death metal with a penchant for mood and menace. Whatever your pleasure, there’s plenty on offer here for seasoned death and grind lifers and while Heretical Anatomy has only come out this month, it sounds like it’s been thawed out of the Canadian ice after being entombed since the late 80’s.
More of this soon, please.
7.5/10
JAMES CONWAY