Review Abysmal "The pillorian Age"

Today, I would like to introduce a genuine, long-forgotten underground gem from the distant year of 1995, namely the only album by the Norwegian band Abysmal, entitled “The Pillorian Age”, which was released on the legendary Italian Avantgarde Music label back then. In fact, I can still remember how I first came into contact with this album. As was customary at the time, people copied albums onto blank audio cassettes, and that's how I came to enjoy this band, which was completely unknown to me at the time.

Even the cover artwork, which I naturally didn't see on the copied cassette at the time (and the internet wasn't yet widespread in 1995), perfectly sets the mood for the dark musical performance: a wooden stake disappearing into a gray-white fog hints at the melancholic, dark aura of the album, which is perfect for listening to on dreary autumn and winter days. The songs themselves are numbered like hymns (seven in total with a total duration of 45 minutes) and have corresponding subtitles.

Although Abysmal could be pigeonholed as black metal, they were also rather slow and often ventured into very doom-laden territory. The term “dark metal” fits quite well. Despite all their diversity, they could be mentioned in the same breath as bands like old Samael or the German cult metalheads and inventors of the term “dark metal,” namely Bethlehem, in terms of the ominous atmosphere they created.

When I listen to this album now for the review, I feel transported back to the time when I listened to it during my adolescence. Abysmal are adept at building up their songs skillfully, often slowly, using repetitive patterns. In some cases, they use sad melodies or subtly accentuated synthesizers or synthesizer-generated strings. The throaty, hoarse vocals add to the great atmosphere of the work. The only criticism that comes to mind, especially in retrospect, is that the faster black metal passages seem very standard, following a modular principle, and in some cases the riffing of these fast parts is nothing special; a characteristic that was not unusual in the 90s. However, Abysmal more than make up for this shortcoming in the slower passages.

Incidentally, one member of Abysmal also played with Carpathian Full Moon, who never achieved the same level of fame as Carpathian Forest. Carpathian Full Moon also released a great black metal album on Avantgarde Music in 1994, but then also disappeared into obscurity. So, with these two albums, which unfortunately are only a footnote in Norwegian black metal history, we are left with two superb albums that have lost none of their fascination and charm even decades later.