Review: Abhorrence “Burial of Evil” CD

This band hails from Slovakia and plays brutal metalcore with a mix of the 90's and contemporary styles that, while crude around the edges, could be something to note in the future. Expect everything from chunky power chord rhythms and death metal styled tremolo picking to note-based riffing ala 90's European metalcore, etc. Of course the vocals are sort of growled shouts that are definitely on the more metal side, following the music in overall direction. The real catch, though, are the really creative melodic riffs that pop up from time to time and really add a lot of character to the songs. The writing is a little lacking in that they kind of string together riff after riff without any real sense of unification, and admittedly some of the tremolo picking and whatnot is pretty weak, but those melodic riffs are fucking great. "Words of Fuckin' Truth" keeps melody at the forefront for most of its duration with everything from awesome little arpeggiated runs to wide open chords and interesting palm-muting riffs; while instrumental "R.I.P." is entirely based around layered clean guitars that almost sound like an emo kind of thing!? (Sadly this song runs on for an overly long 3:47 and drags big time, despite some nice drum fills and a significant change of pace atmospherically.) The quick "Abandonment" flirts with more old school hardcore rhythms but still packs in the metal, and after a clean intro with spoken vocals "Traitor" opens into some strong uses of melody and more energetic tempos that jump out as well. As far as the sound goes, it's not bad, but needs a little extra punch. The drums sound pretty good despite being a little rigid, the bass is back there and sounds fairly smooth, etc. The guitar tone has a nice texture to it, but overall needs to feel more fluid and harnessed. I'd say crank the distortion a little more and smooth it out over the basslines to make the most of those crunchy palm-muted riffs and dissonant chords. Tightening up the playing on the most metallic runs would also help, but those aren't the strongest riffs anyway, so... The layout looks pretty damn good on this thing, with worn typewriter text and lots of layered imagery with a consistent aesthetic. The imagery of straight razors, brass knuckles, and blood spatters is all generic, but it works, so fuck it! The lyrics are pretty pissed and seem to cover a variety of topics from the socio-political to the more day to day, with plenty of references to judgment, vengeance, and things like that. This is another obscure band from Deadbutcher that's one to watch in the future. If these guys can place more emphasis on the melodic aspects while throwing a little more energy into the songs they'll have some cool material in tow. I'd definitely try to stray from the tremolo picking stuff though, as songs like "The Ignorance of Justice" would be much stronger centered around the discordant melodic twists. Not bad.