Abhorrent - Kathabasis

Abhorrent

Kathabasis

by Neil Cook at 21 July 2020, 2:22 PM

ABHORRENT, the Chilean Thrash Metal merchants, have been on the scene since 87, albeit under a different name until 89, but that is still an impressive history.  This is their third full-length album with their first in 96 which means the release of “Kathabasis” only 9 years after the previous one is speedy by these guys standards.

Their sound, as you would expect has its roots (bloody roots) in 80s old school Thrash.  Loud hard guitars, chunky bass, pounding drums and dirty snarled vocals, all do their best transport us back to a time when Thrash was king.

That said “Candidate For Punishment” kicks off with a slow chugging bass riff like SABBATH on steroids, before unleashing the fury, setting the tone for the album moving forward.  A long track with room to stretch its legs before the punch in the face which is “Sabbat” a proper thrasher to strain your neck muscles to.

“Ruling Dynasty” has an interesting off-kilter rhythm and freaky little guitar break.  Vocal delivery is TOM ARAYA after gargling broken glass. “Men’s Decadence” hidden behind a little soundscape intro, is a rhythmic chugging tune, built on the amazing bass playing of Mr. DEL  LA HOZ and the ferocious drumming from FREDDY AYALA, a slow monolithic Thrash monster of a track.  Personal favorite of mine on a very strong album.

The pace stays menacingly slow for “The Deluge” at the start before picking up the pace a touch.  Another fantastic example of the fact Thrash doesn’t have to be played at a thousand miles an hour all the time to be effective. The strength of the track is in it’s power not it’s speed.

“Llamando”, is nothing more than a musical interlude which acts as the introduction for “NN” (No Name),the penultimate track on the album.  “Llamando” is nearly as long as “NN”, and I have no clue as to why it exists.

The same cannot be said for “NN” where we carry on with the slower pace.  In fact the guitar “solo” that there is, is almost Jazzy in its nature, as is the bass runs.  A quirky short little piece, it’s over and done.

Which brings us to the final track, “Human Infection”.  Its taken an couple of listens, and I still cannot quite make up my mind if it is genius or indulgent.  Like the previous track, it almost has a Progressive Thrash feel about it, the slow staccato delivery of the song works OK, but the occasional “widdly” bits thrown in unsettle me.  I really don’t know about this one.

So in conclusion, this is a well produced album, the quality of the sound is well balanced and you can hear all the constituent parts.  It is mainly proper old school Thrash, played hard, fast where needed, and with a deep dark sludge-like slowness at others.  If it was a 5 or 6 track EP is would be 10s all the way (even with the weird interlude), but that last 2-3 tracks just didn’t quite work so well for me, so  couple of marks lost for that alone.

Songwriting: 8
Originality: 8
Memorability: 8
Production: 9