So, after a long eight year recording silence following the release of Tara, Absu have now released two albums in three years. The second of a planned trilogy dealing with the abyss, Abzu is as blisteringly sharp and nasty as you would expect, if not more so. Few albums rip and shred as hard as this one does.

Right from the word go, lead track “Earth Ripper” does just that, sounding like a malevolent, hellish force designed solely to rip the Earth in two. From here, Absu blast, thrash and screech their way through the next four tracks in much the same chaotic fashion as the opener, rarely showing signs of slowing down to allow even breathing room. This however does not mean the songs are without personality; “Circles of the Oath” for example, contains a mid track break where the chaos eases off briefly, and closes out with some fading, clean guitar picking; “Skyring in the Spirit Vison” and “Ontologically, It Became Time and Space” are pure, frantic, thrashing, blackened madness.

Up to this point, these first five songs comprise a little over half the albums running time. Then there’s the monster closing track, “A Song for Ea”, clocking in at a staggering fourteen and a half minutes. Composed in six sections (“E-A”, “A Myriad of Portals”, “Third Tablet”, “Warren of Imhullu”, “The Waters – The Denizens”, “E-A (Reprise)”), it has it’s own fair share speed drenched insanity and slicing solos, but also provides a bit of reprieve with some slower, more restrained parts that keep a fourteen minute song from growing stale or boring.

So yeah, Absu have delivered the goods once again, as Abzu is a thirty-six minute, speed driven battering ram to the face.

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