Sweden’s Wombbath experienced quite a resurgence when they came back into the fold in 2014 and a year later released Downfall Rising, their long overdue sophomore release to their classic 1993 debut Internal Caustic Torments.

I reviewed Downfall Rising on this very site of ours, too.  Since then, they have released four other albums and now add Beyond the Abyss as the fifth to the list.  All these albums are solid slabs of Swedish death metal.  Håkan Stuvemark is the mainman since the beginning,g crafting those swirling guitar licks, and Jonny Pettersson joined in on the reunion as vocalist and guitarist in 2014.  Rounding out the band is: Thomas von Wachenfeldt on guitars, Matt Davidson bass and Antti Silventoinen as their newest member on drums.  First thing is the striking use of green on the album cover- great choice, and the cover has an old school flair which I very much appreciate.

The intro opening this 42-minute album has ambience and atmosphere, and slowly gets louder and does not overstay its welcome at just a minute, “Words Unspoken” then erupts with a classic guitar riff.  This riff is tremendous then right into the old school early 90’s beat before erupting into a vicious blast before settling into a slower passage with a cool guitar solo.  The guitar melodies, from the beginning, return, and you will be headbanging like it’s 1989 all over again.  Jonny sounds awesome on this with his usual lower registers, but he adds some killer higher register vocals.  The bombastic opening moment returns towards the end as well.  This is one of the best songs Wombbath has ever created, and such a smart decision to open the album with this track.  Excellent!

“A Symphony of Dread” is next, and the heaving heaviness of that opening guitar riff will cave in your chest in 0.0 seconds.  The song meanders forward in this monolith of extreme heaviness with bursts of blast beats and atmospheric sounds of orchestration towards the end, giving the band a more epic and bigger sound than in the past.

“Malevolent” has a killer and classic Swedish guitar opening riff, as the mid-paced and slower moments allow us to catch our breath somewhat.  Terrific double bass drums – they sound so damn good on this album and the snare drum sound has a loud deep resonating bass sound to it.  This is good.  They mixed this drum sound in perfectly.  I say this because Swedish death metal, done correctly, with the dense and chainsaw-style guitar tone, if not mixed right, will drown everything out.  Not here.  It also helps that Wombbath has more melody and harmonies than many of the bands out there playing a similar style of death metal.  The harmonies and melodies cut through nicely on all the heaviness and blasting when all those moments erupt.

“Consumed by Fire”, at over six minutes, is the longest song, and this closes out the album.  Remember earlier I referenced the band having more of an epic quality and sound this time around, and this album’s closer brings it.  Slower in nature with monstrously heavy riffing and orchestration to coincide with the rhythm.  You get the feeling you’re listening to a big-sounding recording.  This song with the variety of vocal tones, instrumentation, and atmosphere must be listened to with headphones, AirPods, Heavy’s headphones, whatever, to fully capture the expansive nature of the music.  Damn good album closer.

With all that said and done, this is on the longer side of recordings for the band.  They have had some 35-minute albums and then some longer, so maybe this falls in the middle.  There is a lot going on in these songs.  A lot of depth and thought went into crafting this album.  I am glad the band took a few years off to record a new album as well, rather than release another album during COVID, like a few years ago.  There seems to be added freshness to the material on Beyond the Abyss.  This is another kickass album from Wombbath.

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