268 days till W:O:A 2023.
Abbath - not a name I was familiar with until recently, but certainly one of the big names in black metal. Ole Eikemo aka Abbath Doom Occulta or just Abbath was a founding member of legendary Norwegian Black Metal Band Immortal, but also played a part in several other metal projects. One of those projects was "I", formed in 2006 and their to this day only album Between Two Worlds which I came across by chance a couple of weeks ago. I instantly connected with the epic sound on this album (it reminded me of Bathory when listening to it for the first time) and also put Days of North Wind on my playlist.
With his signature corpse paint and not too serious approach to black metal Abbath became somewhat of a prototype for black metal with Immortal and subject of numerous internet memes.
Abbath left Immortal in 2015 and continued to release music as a solo artist. He has released three studio albums so far and his latest release was Dread Reaver in 2022.
I've listened to Dread Reaver as well as the most popular songs from Abbath's first two albums and what is obvious is that Abbath is not making black metal in the strictest sense. His interpretation of black metal is a lighter one with strong Rock'n'Roll and Heavy Metal vibes. Abbath is a huge fan of Motörhead and Lemmy Kilmister and Lemmy's influence on Abbath' music is very evident when listening to Mia Wallace's rolling bass lines and Abbath's vocals. Scarred Core totally sounds like a black metal version of a Motörhead song.
Dread Reaver features 9 songs in total, one of them is a cover of Metallica's Trapped Under Ice. With the exception of Dream Cull and Dread Reaver the tempo in all songs is relatively high. The drums are pretty dominant and drummer Ukri Suvilehto keeps a constant thunderous pace throughout all the songs, sometimes drowning out pretty much anything else. Septentrion and The Book of Breath are probably the two songs with the most audible black metal roots, blast beats and all.
All things considered Dread Reaver is easy to listen to. The songs are catchy and groovy and the choruses memorable. I am having the same problem with this album that I am having with any Motörhead album. I cannot listen to it in its entirety. Single songs are great and they are heavy and groovy and forceful but when listening to 9 songs in a row my head is on overload. So, I will put the above mentioned songs on my playlist and when they'll be shuffled in between other songs, I will definitely enjoy them.
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