Oakland California’s Abstracter have really conjuring up some gnarly tunes with their 3rd full length release Cinereous Incarnate. Having not been familiar with this band I was recommended them through word of mouth. Abstracter do not disappoint with their grime covered approach to blackened/sludge death doom. From what I have been able to tell from listening to their back catalog Abstracter started off as a bit of a noise band and their sound has evolved with numerous lineup changes leading to where we are currently in 2018. The album opens up with “Nether” which is a dissonant murky droning beast of a track at 9:46 minutes.
My first impressions of this group was okay they are a more blackened version of Primitive Man or maybe even a more stripped down Desolate Shrine while they still have elements of old Neurosis at times. I love the way the guitars sound on this. Cinereous Incarnate is six tracks and split into two sides. The first side consists of two ten minutes songs with a minute long instrumental in between. The same can be said of the second side. The second track “Cinereous” is essentially a fifty five second mild noise filler.
“Ashen Reign” and “Wings of Annihilation” are my favorite tracks on here. If you are looking for something dismal enough to make you feel as if you were in your own personal purgatory then this album is going to be right up your alley. “Ashen Reign” in particular starts off painting a bleak pattern of feedback that slowly builds into different pitches and layers. The track continues to build into a massively heavy section that lugs and crawls with a morose sloth like movement. At almost eleven minutes this is a massive track on the album. At about the four minute mark I get an old Immolation/ Incantation feel in the way the guitars continue to build. At about the six minute mark the guitars feedback in layers as the drums slowly chug along. This some purgatorial doom if I have ever heard it. It’s pretty unique. Sort of like if Godflesh and Krypts merged into each other.
“Wings of Annihilation” is another massive track at nearly eleven minutes. It is very similar to the last track in terms of contrasting back and forth between slower single guitar lines and drum parts into bigger sections. Not to give too much away but I, Voidhanger records got a good one here with these guys. At nearly 44 minutes this is generating quite the buzz and I would definitely recommend checking this one out as it is one of the surprise groups of 2018.
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Badass stuff Nick. Only had a brush with their stuff in the past. Really like what I’m hearing, sick review, thanks!
on Jul 31st, 2018 at 14:17