Abbath (2016)

Abbath (2016)

By: Ghost Writer

The name Olve Eikemo may not say much to the common reader, as this musician from the cold lands of Norway has preferred from a long time ago another one as his battle name, going by the name Abbath, thus guy became one of the founding members of Norway's legendary black metal act Immortal, a sort of multi-instrumentalist, Abbath has not only carried with the guitar responsibility in amazing records like Pure Holocaust and Battles in the North, but also serving as bassist, vocalist, keyboardist and drummer, at times basically carrying with the whole weight of a really heavy band, so it might not be such a big surprise that Abbath might end up claiming the sound of Immortal as his own.

Now as a solo act Abbath, Eikemo is not wasting time and quickly resuming his black metal career in Ihsahn (the former leader or fellow Norway black metal legends Emperor, now on a solo career) style, his self-titled debut album is just as pulverizing as any of his previous recordings with Immortal, featuring now a revitalized sound, so just when we thought Immortal was gone for good, Abbath takes the sound and makes it even more brutal and repulsive, if that's possible.

Opener To War quickly strike us with heavy guitars and highly rhythmic drumming, this is not furious nonsense blast beats and tremolo guitars, this is state of the art heavy music full of frantic tempo changes and mind ripping guitar riffing, Winter Bane continues the hard hitting delivery featuring highly addictive guitar work, as many know Abbath is no inept when it comes to guitar playing and the man quickly puts his guitar to great dynamics, intensively creative and keeping things moving at a very interesting pace.

Outstanding drumming faces us in Oceans of Wounds, again a perfect piece for Abbath to deliver the goods thru his guitar, only to be a little affected by Abbath's too limited vocal approach, besides that, you bet this man really knows how to rock in a way that you can almost forget the heavy corpse painting clownish image his former band were known for.

It doesn't take a lot of time to get really hooked on songs like Count the Dead with its great instrumental interplay, a direction that surely will help Abbath in order to get more respect as a musician, displaying here impressive song after impressive song amd nearly taking us to the great early days of black metal, with Bathory, Mercyful Fate and Hellhammer/Celtic Frost obvious influence for this musical output, only time will tell if Abbath and his band are able to surpass Immortal enormous popularity, but already on Root of the Mountain, Abbath is delivery a song that screams "classic metal" all over, this is a really welcome appearance after a really over populated sea of incompetent, generic sounding black metal, this is really standing out, and above those things.