Crash Music - 2006

Track List:
01. Impending Doom (Instrumental)
02. In the Hands of Death
03. Blacken the Sky
04. Servants to Their Knees
05. Wicked Impulse
06. Solitude's Demise
07. State of Mind
08. Salting the Earth
09. Crown Desire

It's getting more and more difficult to write these reviews as nothing innovative seems to ever grace the death metal scene these days. That's fine though, I come to realize that innovative isn't everything, but for a band to have their own sound seems to go a long ways.

Here is a debut album titled From Ashes by Abysmal Dawn. Unless you're a metalhead living in Los Angeles, you've probably never heard of this quartet playing traditional old school death metal in the vein of Grave, Disincarnate, Cancer and Brutality. Notice the list of old shit there? No, I wasn't trying to show off my death metal trivia knowledge, but I am trying to give you an idea of what these noobs sound like.

They make claim to have a blackened death metal sound with a bit of technicality, but this is not an effective description, especially when every other new band out there has the identical description written up. They sound like traditional old school mid-tempo death metal with modern day production. From Ashes remains interesting throughout its entire length. The vocals would be my only gripe, as they don't sound weak, but they tend to sound way to plain for my ears. It takes a lot for a standard death metal band to impress me these days. There are some good double bass, guitar solos and excellent melody spread throughout this disc, so it's best to not just write this band off. If Abysmal Dawn can find their own sound to stand out, they may actually be unstoppable.
abysmaldawn.com
myspace.com/abysmaldawn

Myster6 Rating: 7