I rather enjoyed the 2022 debut album, Depravity from these Belgian lads as it meshed At The Gates and The Black Dahlia Murder-styled razor-sharp melo-death, and threw in some orchestration/keyboards here and there, which as regular readers know, gives me a major boner.
So here is a 6 song EP to follow up Depravity, and the formula remains intact, and as should be expected, there’s some improvement within the consistency. But man they do this style with conviction and energy.
Opener “Nothingness” sets the mood with some blistering riffage, shredding solos, and a nice mid-song orchestral bridge, but the second track “Abomination” is where the EP really takes off with some church-y organs and some absolutely ferocious hack n slash riffage and grooves.
“The Chainsaw Killer” delivers a bristling, vicious, ATG homage while “Alien Abduction” has a more spacey, well, alien vibe to the synths, while the song is still an urgent, if slightly more restrained number. “Omens of Evil” really cements a heavy The Black Dahlia Murder worship, and could have come from any of their last few albums, with a perfect blend of melody and thrashing savagery.
EP closer “A World Engulfed in Flames” is over 6 minutes long, and finally slows things down a bit here and there, with some really epic, dramatic orchestration, which seems to be increased slightly through the EP, compared to the debut. Its climax is a perfect, rumbling end to the EP at really hints that these guys are ready to, as the kids say…glow up?
As a 30-minute EP, Abomination is what a stopgap, between album release, should be; consistent, tease new material, and long enough to be worth your $$ and Slaughter The Giant should be a rising force, on a bigger label soon.
