Damnations Prophecy

Aussie War-Metal, an often maligned yet distinctive sub genre highlighting all of the undergrounds flaws in bad production, lack of skill and focusless racketeering but also unparalleled in intensity, brutality and bloodthirsty integrity. Australia has a proud history of producing some of the most cult and obscure bands in extreme music over the years and while Abominator still fit that mould, they did manage to get more notice than others and get a record deal which would see them garner more exposure outside of Oz.

Featuring Damon Bloodstorm ex-Bestial Warlust and Chirs Volcano formerly of Destroyer 666, Abominator keeps it simple on their debut release focusing on brutality and extremity over any technicality or melody. Still maintaining the traditional thrash template of their former bands, Bloodstorm and Volcano opt to add more of a death metal approach than the hyper speed and insanity of their previous acts, resulting in a sound not to dissimilar to an Angelcorpse or early Morbid Angel.

Musically Abominator use repetitive riffing which gradually builds up throughout the songs, with heavy groove driven breaks not so dissimilar to Aussie compatriots Blood Duster. Lyrically its all about war, chaos and destruction with a satanic slant, with harsh scratchy vocals backed up by more traditional guttural growls. Its all pretty standard fare and while effective in its goal of creating a chaotic atmosphere, theres nothing too original either at the time of release or now in retrospect.

Where Abomintor fall majorly short is in the song writing department, playing ‘Damnations Prophecy’ as a whole can become tiresome and enduring with most tracks sounding a little too similar and not displaying enough variation in either the structuring or vocal delivery. Clocking in at 56 minutes is also not helping the cause with most songs entering the 4-5 minute mark, a little too long for this style of brutal death.

Overall I’ve heard worse from bands within this style and at least the boys try and play the limited material with some conviction and venom but its just too overbearing in length and its lack of originality and personality make it unremarkable compared to other bands and releases within the same genre.