The Last Supper

I have owned this album for years, but just gave this a go recently. All I have to say is "wow". I'm not sure why I ignored this album for so long. The talent just flows from these musicians and almost every song from "The Last Supper" has something memorable. The problem for a lot of these 90s death metal bands is that they have all style, but no substance. There are many releases that all sound copy and pasted from one another. They all wanted to be as brutal and edgy as possible. I don't quite blame them because there were a lot of bands pumping shit out back then. I never really gave this album a chance because I just assumed they were another try hard band. I would constantly look at the album and skip it if I was in a death metal mood. I'm glad I'm going through my collection because this album is very good.

As I said before, there were many bands back then with some trying-too-hard lyrics. I wouldn't say Abaddon Incarnate is an exception to this. A lot of the tracks go for that shock factor. I do have to say that it works though. There is a song, "Raping Ground", about tearing the wings off angels and raping them. There is a track, "Vermithrax" about how disgusting homosexuals are and how they should all be killed. Do I agree with the message in these songs? No, but will I remember them? Absolutely. So, the message they were going for does in fact stick. This is all fine and dandy, but how is the music itself? Well, it's pretty great.

The reason why this album works is because of the phenomenal instrumentals coming from: Bill Whelan, Stephen Maher, Rob Tierney, and Olan Parkinson. Bill and Steve on guitars just blew me away. I honestly expected just your standard death metal, or brutal death metal riffing, but it doesn't come up here. You have these very complex sections and they switch up time signatures constantly. The last minute of "Vermithrax" sounds nothing like the rest of the song and the two minute mark of "Forced Osculum Infame" is gorgeous. This also boils over to the drums and bass which also do a fantastic job keeping up with the speed and technicality.

So, why isn't this album an immediate 100% due to me gushing over these guys? Well, for one, it is pretty dated. Now, I'm far from a social justice warrior and do not get offended at all, but some of these lyrics seem to be trying a bit too hard. Going back to the song, "Vermithrax", it seems that it's definitely a product of the times. Even then it's pushing it. You have lyrics like,

"Listen to me I have something important to tell you
There is homosexuals crawling in your vicinity
They fuck like rats
They spread Vermithrax
I shall split you all into
Easily proscecutable units
Send you to the death camp
Send you back to your sterile father"

So, while I'm not a homosexual and don't really care what people do with their free time, I feel like this is just low hanging fruit. I just don't think it was needed. Another aspect of this album I didn't really care for is the vocals on the first three tracks. I was trying to follow along to what they were saying, but I still couldn't even do that. It honestly sounds like Stephen Maher is just going, "wha wha wha wha wha" over and over again. This suddenly changes starting with "Temple of Rancid Filth". For some reason I could follow what they were saying and I enjoyed myself more. Unfortunately this only lasts until "When the Demons Come" because there are no lyrics for the rest of the songs. There are no lyrics in the booklet and apparently it was due to an error in the pressing company. All of that is why I wouldn't give this album a perfect rating.

Overall, I'm really surprised by this release. It has some controversial stuff that I don't quite agree with. This was recorded in 1998 and certain things back then were a lot more lenient. I can't really fault these guys for writing the songs they did. This is especially true due to how beautiful it all sounds. There are certain sections on "The Last Supper" that don't sound like it should be coming from a death grind band. The song writing is fantastic and the songs are memorable as hell. Give it a chance!

Recs: "Temple of Rancid Filth", "Nihilist", "I Hate", "Vermithrax", "Raping Ground", and "Forced Osculum Infame"