Medeia’s previous album, Cult, floored me with a blindside haymaker; the blend of melodic death metal and mainly Gothenburg-less metalcore really stuck out from the competition. The songwriting was tight, the riffs were tighter and the delivery was full of primal rage and enough technical finesse to make it all interesting.

Three years later, the band returns with Abandon All and from the initial dozen of listens, it’s a more balanced—if not mature effort—than the predecessor. Rotten Sound’s Keijo Niinimaa still screams in your face whilst Laura Dziadulewicz offers her voice and keyboards to add an extra layer of melody to the beatdown. Samuli Kuusinen (bass) and Janne Putkisaari (drums) both contribute to the down low bruising, but it’s the guitarwork from Samuli Peltola and Pekko Mörö that inflicts the most pain. The riffs are confrontational and both throw in plenty of quirky hooks to finish the listener off amidst all the jabs — listen to “The Ultimate Disconnect From Humanity”, for example.

The album starts out with “We All Fail” and for the next 40 minutes or so, it never lets go. Halfway through, the album’s longest track “The Burning” slows things down a bit with a moody instrumental section. After a couple of minutes, even it explodes into pure violence that develops through the song’s 6½-minute length. Aside from the tracks already mentioned, I’d also have to say that the album ends on a high note with the title track.

As punishing as the ass kicking is and as layered as the textures can be, I wouldn’t mind if Medeia added even a bit more richness to it all with a solo or two — especially knowing that such additions wouldn’t contest the band’s technical efficiency. Yet the whole shebang drills itself to my membrane as—at least on some level—Medeia has similar vigor to many of the early twothousand-something Finnish metalcore acts; it keeps their flame alive, even if “The Undistinguished Name” has a bit of Soilwork-y shenanigans going on.

Medeia might have a tongue in cheek attitude when it comes down to life and things like music videos, but the actual music is serious and uncompromising. Luckily so, as Abandon All will no doubt receive heavy rotation from now on. Just like Cult did.

1. Commented by: Morris

   Fantastic band and much heavier than the references to metalcore might lead some to believe. I caught them at Tuska festival in Finland in July and they were absolutely crushing! Definitely one of my favorite performances of the festival, and judging from the wild audience reaction, a strong local favorite as well. For me, their songs have an intense charging and building-up of tension feel that really stands out from most other bands. Throwing in a bunch of token solo’s would have made it likely sound much more average/typical. Anyway, definitely a very underrated band (at least outside of Finland) that’s well worth checking out, and a terrific album too!

   on Aug 6th, 2011 at 21:36
   

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