Abyssal Ascendant - Deacons of Abhorrence (2020)

Deacons of Abhorrence is the second album from this death metal band from the East of France called Abyssal Ascendant. I liked what they did since their first EP in 2013 (the band founder is an old friend of mine, so I knew them from the start), but this new album is indubitably a step forward, with a more affirmed style and a more powerful production. The music is firmly rooted in the old school of US death metal, Morbid Angel especially comes to mind (the Gateways album more precisely), but also Nile and Cannibal Corpse. Crushing mid tempo parts alternates with faster moments combining brutality and an epic feel of ominous dark forces. On a few songs some digital synth/choirs are supposed to strengthen this epic/atmospheric side, but to be honest this is not what I prefer on the album, but at least it is cohesive with the lovecraftian concept and maybe some people will like it. The production brings a more modern touch (I'd even say the drums sounds a bit too clinical for me but maybe that's also a matter of taste). Overall Deacons of Abhorrence is a very solid album filled with memorable songs and is kind of vibrating with a communicative love for death metal that anyone into this music will relate to and enjoy. Well done and very enjoyable!

The Bandcamp page.

 

 

Abyssal ascendant - Chronicles of the doomed worlds : part I (2015)

Chronicles of the doomed worlds part I : Enlightenment from beyond is the first album of the french death metal band Abyssal ascendant. It follows the release of a good demo last year (read HERE my review of this demo, with the interview I did with their guitarist / singer).
 The album takes where he demo left and bring it to a higher level. Abyssal ascendant is still one hundred percent death metal, of the US kind, definitely old school but with a good dose of "epicness" that reminds Nile, or Morbid angel, sharing with the latter the same fascination for the Great Old Ones.
 But the strong point of the album is the songwriting, strictly speaking, because what I mean here is really the ability to write good songs. Many bands try to be the fastest or most technical or brutal as they can, sometimes it works and it's great (when the band manage to combine technical ability with a good songwriting), often it just bury the listener in a mass of guitar layers, doube kicks and pigs squeals, and you get bored very fast because it sounds the same the whole album, you just can't distinguish a song from another or sometimes not even a riff from another. Abyssal ascendant, while having no problem at keeping the brutality and playing at a death metal level, are very good at keeping it simple and going straight to the point (going nearly trash metal at times, which is fine with me). You can follow what every instrument is doing, every vocal lines, and how they combines and work well together to form a good song. Every song is memorable and "catchy" in an old school death metal way.
After the instrumental intro (every lovecraftian themed album needs it, right?) the first song starts the album very strongly, delivering blows after blows, with a strong epic feel, at the first listen you know this is a "death metal hit". the following songs have a less direct and immediate impact, but after a few listen you realise you remember the riffs, rhythms, and that the whole album is great as well. And you'll get back to it, and after every listen you'll like it more. This is indeed a very enjoyable and addictive album.

Yes, that was my "love death metal and the old school" moment of the month! if that strikes a chord in you don't hesitate for a second and go for this really good death metal album!

The Bandcamp page

their website

Abyssal ascendant - Unleashing the outer plagues (2014)

Abyssal ascendant is a new death metal band from France, and Unleashing the outer plagues is their demo (preparing an album planned for 2015). if you're into old school death metal then you'll probably dig it. while it seems that nowadays most old school death bands draw their inspiration from Sweden, Abyssal ascendant proudly revive the sound of the more brutal and technical US scene, especially floridian but Suffocation comes also to mind. while the guitar work displays some Cannibal corpse influence, the heaviness and the "larger than life"  (or should I say larger than death?) atmosphere building reminds Morbid angel (or also Nile in its epic moments, but Lovecraft inspired, not Egypt). so if you're in need of your dose of old school death with good grooves, good guitar works with many leads, cool vocals, and well crafted songs conjuring lovecraftian unspeakable horrors, then just go for it!

the Bandcamp page

the website 


Florent their guitarist / singer (who also happens to be an old friend of mine) answered to my questions about his band :

-tell us the sorry of Abyssal ascendant from the beginning to your demo, Unleashing the outer plagues.


Well, the beginning of Abyssal happened in 2012, after fanny and I tried to play some death / doom stuff with a friend who was a drummer on Besançon (we played Morbid Angel covers).

We split, and immediately after I proposed fanny to begin something really serious, of our own, with programmed drums because no drummer was available, and some expanded lovecraftian concept. She was beginning with the bass and got very interested in doing death metal with such thematic. So we contacted Bochon, an old friend, to help us with the programmed drums, because we both haven’t any real expertise in studio engineering, to have a correct render on our live playback. Without him, nothing would have been possible so far.

Then we did 2 gigs before gathering all the stuff we had worked on and made it into an EP.

-I know you're into old school death metal since a long time now, tell us about that, how did you get into it and what kept your passion for it intact up to now?

I really discovered OSDM thanks to a lot of friends I met in school or in music.
The first time I listened to Morbid Angel, Crusher or Immolation, I was so shocked by the ambiance, I could sense nightmares weeping from the music they played. I regret that I only discovered all these bands only 15 years ago and not sooner (well I was 19). But still, old school expresses exactly what I feel and what I want to feel when I listen to music. I can’t express it in words, but it is the reason why I will never give up on this part of death metal. It is a strong way to express whatever I want, whatever I feel. It revealed something in me and from me, something that was sleeping deep. From my first death metal band with you, Dennis, until Abyssal Ascendant, it has never disappeared. It’s even stronger by the years.

-it's obvious that death metal and Lovecraft goes well together, and famous bands like Morbid angel already made this association, but tell us what led you to do your own version of the Lovecraftian death metal stuff?

First, fanny and I are dreamers. We like anything in culture (books, music, video games, roleplay games) that make us use our imagination and translate into a necessity to stay far from this rotten world. Lovecraft is, of course, one of our favourite writers, basing the background on the principles of cosmogony. We want to believe rather in this concept than in any other bullshit this society is serving us. Maybe we wish that all those things were true, and we want to make a musical tribute for this mythos. Besides, Fanny game-mastered the roleplay game Call of Cthulhu for quite some time, so creating an immersion through lyrics and music is like an achievement! There is so much resources and inspiration in the Lovecraft universe. And not only just in Lovecraft’s writings. He had some peers / followers who developed the mythos, creating new entities, lore and stories: Derleth, Bloch, or Frank Belknap Long (thanks to him for the Hounds of Tindalos, background of our song “Interdimensional Predation”)...So our own version of Lovecraftian death metal does not stop at what lovecraft wrote. We want to expand this, to make stories of our own; it’s a tribute to him and his peers, but it is also an occasion to be SF writers too.

-what about Unleashing the outer plagues?

This is a one-year-of-work achievement. And as I said, without Bochon it wouldn’t have been possible at all. He really takes care of us and makes all his possible to support and work with us. On one hand we really wanted people to listen to what we had, and on the other hand, we did not have enough money to make CDs. So I guess we are kind of lucky to live during this digital and internet Era; this was our first release, and it was 100% digital, and considering we didn’t have any money to distribute it, well, we thought it was far better just to give it to people. I made a PDF with lyrics and credits. People are free to donate or not (actually one guy offered 10 € for this EP!! We are absolutely thankful for his support, and did not expect this, even once, hehe). That’s all for the “material” aspect.

About the conception, the songs are not directly chained to one another, but the thematic is here in various ways, referring to various backgrounds of Lovecraft’s universe.

I assume that many people have certainly not read the lyrics, but I’d love them to.

-I know your first album is on the way, what can we expect from it?

Death Metal by Abyssal Ascendant: very much influenced music, maybe less inspired by known classic bands than the EP. I don’t know. And we don’t care about that actually.

Originality is not our leitmotiv. Many reviewers took it for a not so good thing. Do they expect me to say “wait wait wait, this riff is too Immolation, we erase it now” – and try to do something that has NEVER been done? In death metal? That is not our objective. One day, bands who love these artists will have to keep that style alive, when Morgoth, Nile, Cannibal Corpse, Immolation, Morbid Angel (etc...) won’t exist and do gigs anymore. And I still claim the ensemble is our own musical style and stuff, anyway. But I’m splitting from the topic. So you will have to expect ambient parts with weird voices and keyboards, old school death metal, some brutal stuff, some soli, some good old death-scifi/horror lyrics based on Lovecraft universe (I hope people will read them), of course ! In a more grown up way than the EP, I guess. And...maybe something a bit more...Epic. Also, at least one song will be the sequel of a story we started in the EP.

-what is the writing process for Abyssal ascendant?
Most of the EP lyrics have been written by me. Now Fanny is most of the time composing them, because she discovered she had good skills for it and because she loves reading, writing...While I compose the instrumental parts of the songs. Now we have Raùl on drums, I think rhythm parts will be more organic, as he is working on it.

So how do we proceed? Well, we do a list of some subjects we want to be set to music. Either I have some songs ready, and we discuss about a subject which would fit well on them, or Fanny gives me some lyrics and I make the song to incarnate it.

-which bands from your area would you recommend?

==>Fetal Massacre: good old school brutal stuff from Besançon; makes me think about the firsts albums of Cannibal Corpse, young guys, and have all their life to offer us this music, and it’s great to know that.

==>Dieresis: US Brutal Death from Besançon; this guys just kills since more than 10 years,

eager to listen to their new album (which is soon).

==>Komodo Island: Doom from Lyon, they just released their first EP; I think you should really throw an ear into it.


-Which evolution would you like to see for underground music in the future?
To be honest, I don’t know if I really want to go into these considerations...What I call underground is when you sell stuff illegally. Music must continue to be shared on different degrees, on different levels; actually we have this evolution right now: more accessibility for bands to make their music, and make it being listened, without being swallowed by the big names. I wish it will go on like this. It's not real "underground", but, it allows little bands (like us) to create music, share it and spread the word. Self-productions are now so decent! And easy to share...And real underground music must continue too, in its way, because it is the base of all things.


-in addition to the album what is planned for Abyssal ascendant in the coming months?

We decided to take a break in order to compose, so, we won’t be doing any gig until the album is in mastering. But we go on rehearsing to work on the new songs. For now we are recording a song for a free metal compilation, “Armies of The Void” – this song is not on the EP, and won’t be on the album. It is also the first song Abyssal Ascendant will release with Raul (our drummer). For us it is symbolic, it’s an exclusivity.

-something to add?

Thank you very much for the interview, always a pleasure to share this kind of things!

I want to add 4 things actually:

- We are very proud and happy to play with Raùl Fernandez. We didn’t talk very much about him in this interview, but he is now part of Abyssal Ascendant’s essence. I hope he will stay with us (so far so good). He really completes us. He hasn’t recorded the album drum parts yet, but we are so eager to see this!

- We want to thank all the people who support us and believe in us since the fucking beginning. We didn’t expect so many people would be following us...Being there to encourage, and indulging themselves in our dark universe. A good way to discover that many other people are dreamers too.

- We really want to thank Alex and Jeremie from Dolorem records, our label. Thank you so much for your support guys !!

- And the very last words : “Fuck you, you're not in the band !” [note from Blasting days : this is a private joke!  yes Florent, indeed, this time i'm not in the band haha!]