Never-Ending Black Torrent of Death

God damn, this is one of the shittiest CDs in my collection. If you knew me, you'd know that's saying a lot. "Never-Ending Black Torrent of Death" sounds to me like a really really nasty case of the runs. If that's what Vintyr had in mind, then the title is apt.

This is one of those boring, generically "depressive" albums that seemed to be all the rage when this was released back when everyone was trying to cash in on the black metal craze. The only thing "depressive" about it is that like a fucktard I paid full price for this thing. Minimalistic my ass, this is sloppy, boring, and uninspired trash. It's one of those albums where you'll hear the same shitty riff played 16 times in a row and you just *know* that it's all a big psyche-out with all of this repetition building up to that excitingly creative transition you know is coming, and at this point, desperately crave...HERE IT COMES!!!... huh? Nooo waayyyy..."FUCK YOU MOTHERFUCKER" Vintyr then says, "I'M NOT GIVING YOU SHIT!! SIT YOUR ASS BACK DOWN AND LISTEN TO THIS BLAND-ASS RIFF *16 MORE TIMES*!!!! YOU DON"T EVEN GET A DRUM FILL TO MARK THE OCCASION, BITCH!!".

If your idea of a good time is listening to one feeble riff for a whole 5 minute song while Vintyr feebly caws "In the name of Satan, ariissseee!" in that shitty, distorted vocal style we all know and hate, then by all means buy this album. On the other hand, if you are *not* suffering from severe brain injury, avoid this like the plague. The only good thing about it is it's only a MCD. I guess he was in a rush and only had 5 minutes to spare instead of the 10 he would have needed for a full length.

Abandon are a band featuring Vintyr, known also for his work in the excellent primitive black metal formation Basilisk. Abandon is not a continuation of Basilisk, but rather a more atmospheric black metal project with many other influences in it. There are several moments where elements and melodies that could be borrowed from a shoegaze or post rock song fit into the equation very nicely. From what I hear the new Hateful Abandon release incorporates even more elements from these types of style into the release. Anyway, on towards the actual EP at hand. Never-Ending Black Torrent Of Death is five very bleak compositions, and is aptly named. The EP is consistently bleak and the atmosphere is always oppressive and dark.

The first track should probably be disregarded altogether, it is simply some vocals from Vintyr not saying anything distinguishable, sounding very manipulated, I wouldn't be surprised if there were several tracks of vocals over each other with some tracks playing backwards. The track is nothing special and become irritating after about half a minute, skip it and instead indulge in the far superior Cold Blessed. Cold Blessed is the best song on the EP, due to it's excellent use of a clean effects driven guitar line (heavily saturated in reverb and chorus-y effects). The sad melodic quality coupled with the almost industrial sound of the trudging distorted drum beat works very well. Vintyr's vocals are mixed a little low but they compliment the density of the overall sound of the EP.

After Cold Blessed the Black Torrent is a bit disappointing as it reverts to more standard black metal instrumentation and riffing. The riffing is not terrible and the song holds up alright on their own, but it is neither as good as the raw aggression of Basilisk, nor are they as intriguing as Cold Blessed. Mid-paced to slow black metal riffing, with very low vocal and drum presence. The mixing of the EP demands the guitars carry the release and on Black Torrent they do not really bring anything interesting to the table. Shackled makes up for this incorporating clean guitars, fast tremolo riffs, and some very uncomfortable harmonies. The change in pace throughout the song is a very welcome. During the tremolo sections the song reminds me of Paysage d'Hiver (especially the S/T album). The guitars dominate the mix, with the drums so low they are only felt and the vocals painfully distorted.

Glory of Disease is a slower song again more similar to Black Torrent. It features some lower and more menacing vocals from Vintyr which help the song along a lot, but it doesn't feature any elements that can really hold interest for it's 7 minutes. The basic chord progression of the song cannot carry the song even though the doom elements offer a lot of directions that could be explored by Vintyr.

The album definitely brings out some good ideas, especially songs like Cold Blessed that challenge the instrumentation of black metal by not relying on any heavily distorted guitar riffing to carry the song. The EP does little more than hint at these interesting incorporation of other genres into black metal, and I wish Vintyr had mixed his vocals higher since they are one of his biggest strengths. The EP is definitely worth hearing, assuming you're used to low production values and are looking for something with a very bleak and depressive atmosphere.

I got this demo for free almost a year ago, so I guess I don’t have much to lose by listening to and furthermore review it now. It seems that Vintyr, the sole member of this project, has now added an extra member and thus the name of this project has been changed to Hateful Abandon, but that is of future concerns and we have a review to write.

As you can see from the name of my review this is torture in audio form. The vocals are about as hateful as they get, cutting and slicing viciously through the tracks in a manner most foul. Actually I will claim that these screams are some of the most extreme I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing, and for that reason alone I would recommend this demo. We also have the distorted guitars, buzzing eagerly like a nest of angry wasps, and trashed sound, it does vary a lot in quality from track to track, so common to underground Black Metal.

Digging deeper into the sound of Abandon it appears to be very varied in my opinion – as a good demo should be. Some songs like the second track, “Cold Blessed”, reminds me of Xasthur or Leviathan with its menacing crawling riffs while a track like “Shackled” brings forth an image of a demented hypersonic Burzum or Bilskirnir. The final track, "Glory of Disease", is a more of a Doom Metal track than the rest of the demo. The guitar here reminds me of Judas Iscariot and on this track Vintyr changed his vocal style a bit - sadly this change of style is not very good in my opinion. While track 2-5 is rather good the intro track is pure shit, though, and it is actually so bad that for this reason alone I never really got to listen to this album before now thanks to it. Perhaps this track is meant to scare off any untrue listeners - it certainly worked on me at least.

My advice to any fans of extremely grim Black Metal is to give this demo a chance – and then a second one as you will most likely not be hooked from the first listening. Here is to hoping that Vintyr and his new partner in crime, Swine, will conjure more misery and hatred for us all to enjoy.