Arms Of The Abyss - The Great Dying (2014)
According to the liner notes, Arms Of
The Abyss' new album (the first from the band, though its members
have played together before this) is centered around an
nigh-unfathomable extinction event involving forces beyond the
ability of man to comprehend. The band communicates this concept
through their chosen medium of cosmic doom metal, letting megalithic
bass, sonorous drums, a strong range of vocal capabilities, and
carefully-wielded guitar tell the tale of virtually an entire
planet's ecological demise.
To do the music credit, it does sound
like something that would be right in place echoing across an arctic
ice shelf. The album sounds lush in all the right places, colossal
and cold in the rest, and produces the relatively rare feat of a
successfully 'epic' metal album. Whether taken seriously, imagining
mysterious energies sweeping across the planet to devastate all
living things, or imagining tundra warriors going mad with clubs and beards,
the music has enough conviction in its doom to make it work.
Of course, combining a concept album,
this kind of subject matter, and big doom metal sets the band up for
some sizable closing song expectations. Luckily, they rise to the
occasion for “Fate Of The Faithful”, which ratchets up the
oppressive atmosphere to the album's high-water point, before
allowing it all to close with a planetary death drone.
As a debut, it's kind of staggering;
where will they go from here? Will they be one of those bands that
intentionally releases just one album? It is hard to imagine a group
which started like this moving on to non-concept albums. But that's
looking beyond the extinction event, and The Great Dying
stands strong on its own.
~ Gabriel
For Fans Of; Thergothon,
Tons, Evoken, Sunwølf, Ksyatriya
~
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