“The demon Abalam is a King of Hell and an assistant to Paimon. He takes possession of a human’s body to encourage the human to commit lust, he would defile humans during the possession and the only way they could escape was death.”

Hailing from the Denmark, Hexis (a term related to or meaning ‘possession’ ) is a blackened hardcore act full of anti Christian fervor and disgust  and Abalam is their first full length release after a number of demos, splits and EP since 2011. And while this release absolutely drips intensity and blackened hardcore furor, being far more vitriol filled than many other current blackened hardcore bands (i.e  Celeste), it lacks anything else.

And while the brooding intensity of the 12 generally short bursts (1-4 minutes) are befitting the scathing anti religious themes,  it seems largely content to rumble, lurch and shriek for most of its sonic, feedback drenched belligerence. And that’s not really a bad thing, but there are no songs on Abalam that stand out or command your attention. Other than a few slower brooding crawls  here and there (i.e. “Tenebris”, “Neglexurant”), , most of the 12 tracks are virtually the same sound and structure with little to break up the cacophony. It lacks the melody of label mates Cara Neir or the atmospherics of Celeste (though they try with the likes of  opener “Faciem” and “Supplex”), arguably the water mark for this style.

But for those wanting a wall of fairly menacing, stammering noise and venomous rasps, Abalam will deliver the goods. “Emanimis”, ‘Desolatum”, “Abalam”, “Timor”, “Exhausit”, Immolalant” all have this patient, but discordant march and blast that are almost identical, especially in the percussion department, which makes the whole 26 minutes bleed together. But the material does have this feral,  tangible early 90s metalcore/hardcore undercurrent that permeates the release with dark, hateful energy even if it is a little forgetable.

[Visit the band's website]

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