Name: ABACABB
Album: Survivalist
Year: 2009
Label: Sumerian Records
Genre: Death Metal/ Hardcore
Some of you might know this band’s name to be the “blood code” from the video game Mortal Kombat on the Sega Genesis console. Congratulations, you’re old enough to know that! Also geeky.
The last Sumerian Records product I thoroughly enjoyed was The Faceless‘ Planetary Duality album (go back and read my previous review of that album!). Browsing Myspace one evening I came across ABACABB. Sure enough I was excited to listen.
This album starts off with a sound clip from the movie Pi. Interesting, at least these guys have a good taste in movies. Okay let’s get into the nitty gritty…
Recording:
Quality is great. Overall mix is unbalanced at times. Guitars are slushed together with some nice raw pick noise once in a while. Drums sound like they’re in the back of a warehouse with the microphones 15 feet away occasionally.
Musicianship:
Opinion time. Now I know this is ABACABB’s debut album on a major label, but it’s hard to believe a band like The Faceless and ABACABB can share label space. Well then again, Dream Theater and fucking Nickelback share label space…so nevermind. It’s what you’d expect from a band in this genre. Death Metal elements of blast beats and tremolo picking guitar riffs mixed with the Hardcore elements of bone crushing break downs. Nothing groundbreaking or new here.
Vocals: Not much in the way of variety here. Throaty screams and pissed the whole album. Occasional screech.
Guitars: Nice tone. Too repetitive throughout the album. By the 6th song I felt like I’d heard the same riff a dozen times already.
Bass: What bass?
Drums: Decent metal drummer. Gets the job done but nothing fancy here.
Feel:
Heart-pounding, hate-inducing, testicles-in-a-vice blast beat and breakdown metal.
Overall:
Honestly I really wanted to like this album more than I do. The first two times I listened to it I was fairly entertained. The third time made me realize most of their songs are too similar. I kept having to look at the track list and say to myself “I’ve heard this song two other times on this album already…fuck!”. Repetition is good, just not in this case. The riffs are recycled too often, the drummer lacks the dynamic to change up the feel between songs, and the vocalist is consistently boring. Oh, and the tempo rarely changes from song to song except for the half-time feel in the breakdown sections. Maybe their Sophomore release on the label will bring about more creativity. Also, interestingly enough, my favorite song on the album is the only one that doesn’t end in “-ion”.