Blood Abscission – I I
Release Date: 11th April 2025
Label: Debemur Morti Productions
Bandcamp
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal, Melodic Black Metal, Post-Black Metal.
FFO: Mare Cognitum, Ellende, Paysage d’Hiver, Aara, Der Weg einer Freiheit.
Review By: Rick Farley
“United in pain, we step into the abyss – not as mere individuals, but as a collective force seeking meaning within the chaos, finding a voice in the silence between the stars.”
With little to no information to share with you such as origin, geographical location, number of band members, their names, and any type of credits concerning production, or composition, a collective force rather than mere individuals seems like a fair statement. Blood Abscission is shrouded in mystery, veiled in secrecy or simply not caring of such things. The few things I can tell you is that their second album simply titled I I is releasing April 11th, 2025, on Debemur Morti Productions is an engulfing piece of atmospheric black metal rooted in the olde ways, but with a nasty embrace for the contemporary mouldings of modern black metal completely unafraid of preconceived notions. Wickedly modern in composition, its urgency is nothing short of tension filled atmosphere, with a taste for unrefinedly produced black metal and buckets of towering old school rage.
Cold frosty riffs blend with huge swaths of synths to create a majestic, yet terrifying backdrop for the darkened ambience that borders both beauty and ugliness with grace and malice alike. Truly an album that’s balanced in a way that’s organic, as if it’s happily dancing with an evil spirit. Post-black and cosmic elements are blended in, rounding out the contemporary sound. These elements are not entirely fleshed out but rather small flourishes which help give the record an anxiety ridden, chaos that feels sonically stuck between two worlds. Claustrophobic, darkly ethereal, tortured, and ferocious with enough conflicted benevolence that somehow translates to the equivalent of gleefully battering you as it still tries to force light in from the shadows to help you. I I is both crushing and brutal yet light and airy. The contrasting dynamics of the record are deeply satisfying.
The raw fury of the opening track, I is mauling terror. Rigorous blast beats, swirling guitar melodies and maniacal screeches beneath an immense cloud of synths that feel as if they could envelop the earth induces claustrophobia and pure dread. Twelve plus minutes of symphonically layered, nightmare inducing black metal is a lot to take right from the get-go, but Blood Abscission show skilled musicianship with tremendous songwriting abilities, it feels half that long.
The beginning of III starts calmly with a fairly clean guitar passage, slowly building into a triumphant wall of textured sounds. The visual of a dimly lit forest with blizzardy conditions swirling around erratically, while in the increasing distance comes a threat of some kind appearing to be hostile. The music builds into a force of blackened menace but retains a feeling of victory within its majestic soundscape. Maybe the hunted has been fiercely dispatched, or maybe the songs conquering tonal changes reveals the hunter to have been defeated. Either way, the grandness of this track is both melodic and epic.
The infinite cosmic atmosphere of IV reaches out into the universe with sorrow filled moods and melancholic warmth. Solemn and tragic, the track weeps with doomy, structured chord changes and deliberate melodies meant to evoke deep emotions. A four-minute instrumental that sounds as if vocals would somehow diminish its impact. A lucid example of how, if done properly, an uncomplicated song can transcend its simplicity into something extraordinary.
On the surface, Blood Abscission could be mistaken for yet another atmospheric black metal band in the ever so crowded genre, but I assure this is something special, worth taking note of immediately. After spending just a few listens to I I I was rewarded with an overwhelming feeling of splendour despite the ghastly black metal contained within its walls. Blood Abscission, regardless of who, where or what, has given us a modern day masterpiece to fill our blackened little hearts.
(5 / 5)
