P.O. Box Suprise Part II || Abysse - Deviant

I’ll be frank from the get-go on this one. Abysse is not a band I would listen to every day, however it is something I foresee myself spending perhaps a few hours a week with and really allowing to soak in. Also, for the sake of clarity, this is Abysse with an ‘e’, not fellow French metallers The Abyss, who actually are pretty good as well.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way I’ll get on with it.  Abysse plays an interesting brand of progressive metal – sans-vocals that has its brutality still well intact while exploring psychedelic and atmospheric elements not unlike fellow instraMETAL acts such as Pelican (though their latest material is inferior to Abysse). While the songs I have sampled thus far have their fair amount of post-whatever-shoe-gazey moments, they almost always shift pitch and build into something greater; you would be hard pressed to find someone saying it isn’t metal. What comes before these metal passages is something special in and of itself because the band has created a sort of appetizer for the listener, presents the main course and then finishes with just enough dessert that you hit the repeat button and go for round two. 

Abysse has contributed to a number of compilations and the like since 2007 and their latest release, Le vide est forme, was sent to me with a couple of additional tracks in the album from which the above track is taken. If you are in the Clisson, France area on June 20, you can catch Abysse at the Hellfest Festival with the likes of Kiss, Slayer and Deftones.