Fucking Louder than Hell

I decided to check out this band after listening to Sabbat's "Karmagmassacre" and finding it quite enjoyable. Since then, I've been seeking out a lot of other Japanese black/thrash bands. Abigail deserves special mention because they are probably one of the better bands I've stumbled across. This album is pretty good; it's very consistent with the ass kicking and even has some memorable parts, but the formula wears thin by the time the album draws to a close.

The album begins with "Satanik Metal Fucking Hell!", a song title good enough for me. First thing you'll notice about this album is that it sounds raw as hell. This works well for what the band is trying to accomplish, and it never takes away from the experience. In this first song, the chorus is repeated a bunch in a screechy manner. Nothing amazing, but it works. The next song "Beer! Metal! Sex!" follows suit. The album starts to really kick ass with "Hell's Necromancer". This song is catchy as fuck without letting up in the aggression set by the last two songs. A pretty nice solo is found here too. Next track up is "Nuclear Warheads" and it's a lot like the previous song with a buzzsaw guitar attack, cool chorus and a competent solo. The song closes with a screeching scream and takes us to "Prophecy of the Evening Star", where the band sounds more like Motorhead than ever. A lot more melody to be found here, and the song takes more more of a speed metal approach as opposed to a blackened thrash one. A nice solo (probably the best one so far) and a catchy rhytym follows. Next up is "At War", where the band returns to its familiar sound. It is pretty unremarkable except for the second half after the solo where things start to get catchy. Now we have "Holocaust" which begins with the vocalist screeching the song title and exploding into more blackened thrash., except with minimal catchiness to be found here. I guess that makes this the weakest track. Whatever. "Evil Dead" starts up with a more of a groove-oriented approach (no Pantera or Machinehead to be found here) that makes the assault a lot more coherent and in this case, enjoyable. "Speed Kills" follows and stays true to the rest of the album. Sounds a bit like Motorhead, but not nearly as much as "Prophecy of the Evening Star". This track is short, enjoyable and moderately catchy. The album's closer, "Of Hell", is nothing more than some feedback, a guitar squealing and other shit going on in the background. Soon some deep vocals come in, some drums pound and everything dies down and ends. Yup, pretty much fucking stupid, but I guess others may argue it's an appropriate ending for such a raw, aggressive band.

This album isn't bad, but I just don't expect it to get a lot of rotation, at least from me. This is probably the band's best release, but not by far. It's good and does what is supposed to, resulting in a pretty enjoyable, albeit limited experience. I wish this album would continue with the Motorhead worship found on track five if they chose to put out a really consistent album, but this isn't bad at all. I'd reccomend it to anyone into blackened thrash or down and dirty metal.