Abominor – Opus: Decay

Abominor hail from Iceland (not be confused with the extra-galactic droid society from the Yuuzhan Vong galaxy from Star Wars lore) pack a serious black metal punch with the latest two track release “Opus Decay.” I’ve enjoyed this a great deal; the lads are an old school second wave black metal throwback but with a more dominating death metal vocal choice.

The format of the release does annoy me a little; I dislike the mini songs in one big song format. It is frustrating to review; however as an art piece, I love it. So there is conflict; the work seems to mirror that conflict in its structure: bouncing between the melodic to the extreme darkness of the genre.

The opener “474” is a journey building from barely audible ambient noises through a blackened melodic passage closing with an extreme section complete with amazing growls and blast beats.

Again, I dislike reviewing stuff like this because it undermines what the lads where going for: a journey. But, with that said, I really enjoyed the third movement which serves as the melodic core of the song the most. The drums sound amazing, as the guitar carries the song underwritten by the bass. It’s haunting and fantastic.

I think this is their best moment on the track with the “traditional” black metal song can veer into “paint-by-the-numbers” a little but that’s the genre. I struggle with avoiding it too in my own projects. In order words, how to sound black metal while standing out with a limited a creative palette to work from. Abominor’s strength is their great melodic sections.

The title track “Opus Decay” is more to the point; kicking in with the heavy drum/guitar combo straight way until dipped back into a melodic passage and more of a heavy section to end the nine minute ten second work. This is shorter than “474” and it is a better song for my tastes. The vocalist and bassist Alfreð Þór is great. His growls are perfect for the band and I can’t say enough great things about them. There is a strong “Satyricon” feel to the track from the one minute mark and it works so well with Þór’s vocal style. There is a strong sense of what this is track is throughout and it fits better as a unit than the more episodic “474”.

The only real issue I have with this is that there is no sense of closure to the release: it starts, is awesome and then abruptly ends. It’s why I dislike the format of release. It’s a small problem, I know, but that is because I can’t really find any other issues.

“Opus: Decay” is a strange one overall; and it’s not something for non fans of black metal but if you are looking for something different and outside the three to five minute approach to song construction then give this one a real shot. You’ll really enjoy it.

Abominor are:

Alfreð Þór – Bass, Vocals
Óskar Þór – Guitars, Vocals
Kristinn Rafn – Guitars
Þórir Hólm – Drums

Tracklist:
1.474
2. Opus Decay