Abyssal Vacuum is a French, one-man back metal project. Its creator and sole performer, Sébastien Besson, is also part of the duo Dyslumn (which I just now realized put out an album I missed that I now have to check out). Abyssal Vacuum’s three-track EP, MMXVII, communicates only in Roman numerals and the deepest of growls. To be honest, I’ve personally gotten sick of the so-called “cavern-core” scene that’s plagued our fragile planet for what seems like decades. It's a label usually applied to low-fi death metal with low, impenetrable vocals and instrumentals, topped off with a hefty dollop of murk. Abyssal Vacuum adopts that vocal style, and in this case they may very well be as low as a human voice box can produce, but the guitars, drums, and (audible and well-played) bass are rendered in crystal clear production, calling out high-riding melodies, usually of the slightly dissonant variety. The contrast is strangely addictive, and it provides a refreshing antidote to what could have easily been another entry under cavernous death metal or standard-issue atmospheric black metal. Besson uses both to make something that transcends the sum of its parts.
Comments
Post a Comment