Absens – Martyr Part I: Ignite

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Forming in 2015 and hailing from Porto Alege, Brazil, ABSENS is a Progressive Extreme Metal band with influences ranging from OPETH, PERIPHERY, TESSERACT, NE OBLIVISCARIS, and THE FACELSSS. “Martyr Part I: Ignite” is the band’s second album, probably an EP, and contains four tracks.

“Ablaze” leads off the album. Heavy, weighted guitar accents with guttural vocals lead the charge here. The Progressive elements are in the meter shifts. Clean vocals come in at the chorus, along with some melody. The Djenty accents towards the end make their mark. “A Beam of Light” opens with dark accents, and some fanciful guitar work. The clean harmonized vocals are actually wonderful. What follows is a heavy passage with raging harsh vocals. While the clean vocals wash over you, the instrumentation underneath is super-tight and the yin and yang is noted. Tense tones close out the song.

“Abrasive – Corrosive” is an under-four minute, intense, and raging song. They dial up the Progressive elements here with intense harsh vocals. The clean vocal passage shows their melodic side. The melodies are there for the taking, just be patient and look through the harsh vocals. It ends with clean guitars. “Abeyance” closes the EP…a song over six-minutes in length. It opens slowly, with despondent tones from piano notes. Some spoken words join in, as the song begins to find its melody line. When the vocals come in, the melody is more easily grasped. It moves forward with this haze of grey attached to it. It’s both sad and charming at the same time.

Overall, I really enjoyed the album. Four songs were not enough to make a totally informed opinion, but these guys certainly proved that they have the songwriting and musical chops to hang with the giants in the genre. Deadly at times, while light and airy at others, they proved the blending of these two competing elements can and does work well. Don’t fall asleep on this band…I have a feeling when they have enough material for a full-length album, it’s going to be a monster.

Songwriting: 8
Musicianship: 9
Memorability: 8
Production: 8