Knights of the Abyss
Juggernaut

Much like the recent Candlelight/SOAR releases Diskreet, Rose Funeral and Whitechapel, Arizona’s Knights of the Abyss ply a form of technical, grindy, breakdowny, modern death metal, that’s to say, and I hate to use the term; deathcore, and they actually should give Job For A Cowboy (who share the same producer) a run for their money to be Arizona’s best deathcore band.

And like their dual label mates, this is pretty stout stuff. Not quite as good as Diskreet or Whitechapel but maybe a tad better than Rose Funeral, KOTA aptly named debut has all the genre’s requisites in spades-notably, bowel emptying breakdowns amid the competent blast beats as well as hardcore-ish shouts, deep growls and blackened shrieks. Admittedly, you and I have heard this before, and the band does little to distinguish themself from the pack (even with the orchestral injection for the opening title track), but the Candlelight/SOAR licensing deal is admittedly, on to some of the better bands in the much maligned genre.

Still though as far as sheer, speaker rattling heft, tracks like “Karmageddon”, “Gridlock” “I Pledge Agrieveance”, “Megabrain” will satiate fans of crumbling modern death core and other middle tier bands in the genre like The Classic Struggle, Antagony and The Taste of Blood. As long as they are willing to sit through some rudimentary blasting filler as Through The Eyes of The Dead, All Shall Perish or Misericordiam this is not, and deal with the whole image and looks thing that seems tokeep metal fans divided when it comes to this sort of band.

[Visit the band's website]
Written by Erik T
September 17th, 2007

Comments

Leave a Reply

Privacy notice: When you submit a comment, your creditentials, message and IP address will be logged. A cookie will also be created on your browser with your chosen name and email, so that you do not need to type them again to post a new comment. All post and details will also go through an automatic spam check via Akismet's servers and need to be manually approved (so don't wonder about the delay). We purge our logs from your meta-data at frequent intervals.

  • Wolfbrigade - Life Knife Death
  • Vended - Vended
  • Vafurlogi - Í vökulli áþján
  • PeelingFlesh - The G Code
  • 1349 - The Wolf and the King
  • Flotsam and Jetsam - I Am the Weapon
  • Glacial Tomb - Lightless Expanse
  • Kanonenfieber - Die Urkatastrophe
  • Deceased - Children of the Morgue
  • The Black Dahlia Murder - Servitude
  • Hammerfilosofi - SOLUS ( Igne Natura Renovator Integra) EP
  • Emasculator  - The Disfigured and the Divine EP
  • Laceration - I Erode
  • Servant - Death Devil Magick
  • Sur Austru - Datura Străhiarelor