ABYSS OF HEL come from Germany and “Into The Abyss” is their debut full-length album. The band was created initially as a one-man project by Daniel Stromayer (guitar player of the already defunct German Viking black metal band THRUDVANGAR) and after a while he was joined by Rustam Guseinov on drums, Robin Bohn on guitars, Hannes Fritzsching on guitars and Diana Grosse on keyboards/additional vocals. The start of the album is given by “Devolution” – an uptempo track that grabs the listener with its energy and power. Daniel Stromayer’s vocals are heavy but not exactly Death metal grunts, you can hear the words he is singing. Next is “Ancient Fears” which offers a catchy chorus that will do good live I guess. There is a definitive Industrial metal influence, obvious in “Dolls” with its slight electronic sounds mixed with heavy guitar riffs. “I’ll Fade Away” hits hard with fast tempo and sounds like something from the latest PAIN albums.

Another hard hitter is “The Soulless King” with a guitar riff that reminds me of MACHINE HEAD from their more recent records. The vocals are decent when they are heavy but the attempts of clean singing from Daniel Stromayer are, let’s say, not that successful which is evident in “Shores of Mind” and “My Creation”. The closing “Slaves” is the track where you can finally hear Diana Grosse’s vocals together with Daniel Stromayer’s clean singing – she has a beautiful voice but as I said already above, melodic vocals are not Daniel’s strongest ability. “Into The Abyss” production-wise is on a good level, mixed at Emperial Sound and mastered in Indiscreet Audio.

In case you need more Electro/Metal in your life in the vein of PAIN or even RAMMSTEIN then you can check ABYSS OF HEL without fear. The band truly has a potential and only time will tell how far they can go with their music. “Into The Abyss” is a promising debut of a talented band that is far from original but still interesting to listen to.