BARON – Beneath the Blazing Abyss
Release Date: 26th April 2024
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Death/Doom, Hardcore.
FFO: Paradise Lost, Moonspell, Ahab, Swallow the Sun, Draconian, Novembers Doom.
Review By: Rick Farley
The country of Finland has produced some of the finest death/doom the world has ever heard or seen. Known to hordes of fans for having colossal atmospheric melodies, walls of guitars that sway and chug, skull crushing low end, rhythmic assaults and cavernous gutturals all wrapped neatly in a grievous, moody package. It has become a bit of a signature sound in the metal world, that you can easily identify immediately when you hear it. When it’s wretched, twisting, and vile, while having dark, melodic atmosphere, it can be brutal yet ethereal, even entrancing. Finnish band Baron straddles those lines masterfully between chunky death metal and crushing, mournful doomy atmosphere, while adding musical flourishes of hardcore into the already grossly rotten brew. Baron has a previous history with the beatdowns of hardcore that was much more prevalent than it is now. Check that out as well. But on April 24th, 2024, Baron is set to unleash their ferocious dose of nasty death metal on their upcoming debut full length album Beneath the Blazing Abyss releasing on Transcending Obscurity Records. The label has been killing it regularly with outstanding releases, and Beneath the Blazing Abyss is no exception.
The album kicks off violently with the lethal Primordial Possession, a chuggy rager that’s full-on double bass smashing, emanating with kinetic energy. The chasmic vocals range from drawn out gutturals, higher pitched nuanced screams, and a little hardcore cadence. This track just basically strong-arms you and then gets to stomping with earth shaking density. The guitar tone is tight, slightly on the verge of being buzzsaw without sounding too much like Swedeath, the bass is boomy and a little fuzzy, oozing out when needed. The drums are thick toned and ferociously chest thumping, all these combined, makes for a hell of a grimace faced head bang.
A couple tracks come at nine minutes or so, with Beneath the Blazing Abyss sitting at a near perfect forty-three minutes spread out over seven lethal tracks. The first nine-minute world swallowing track At the Dawn of Damnation jolts out chaotically noisy with searing leads and twisted whammy bar dives before settling into a slow-paced chord progression. The atmosphere is dreadfully crawling, everything just creeps at a pace that lurches its way towards you before reaching out and battering you violently. It reaches its heaviest moments towards the end before an unearthly melody goes from distorted to clean and then into a stellar acoustic guitar passage. The transition from the eerie beginning, to disgusting heaviness to the uplifting ending is a harrowing journey you will want to take over and over again. The other nine-minute track Bound to the Funeral Pyres is full on crushing death/doom with choral vocal elements the gives the track an otherworldly ambience. Deep gutturals edge in over punishing double bass and chugging riffs once the track starts to shift moods. Again, the tempo changes on this album are noteworthy, Baron briefly breaks into a fiery tremolo picked nod to black metal, completed with higher pitched screams. Groove laden riffs, hellish speed, and grim atmosphere. It all just works.
Beneath the Blazing Abyss is a heaving massacre of bulldozing mass that just wants to lay waste to everything. There is an elegant griminess organically expressed through potent celerity that shift between lurking and breakneck intensity. An unseen atmospheric menace terrorizing you beneath your skin, while your body is pulverized on the outside. This is a blistering attack that feels gargantuan. Baron is a band I will be paying closer attention to from now on, and this record easily finds a spot in my regular rotation.
(4.5 / 5)
