The mix between Black Metal and Death Metal is something that arose in the 80s (when the differences between extreme Metal genres were hard to establish) with acts as SARCÓFAGO (“I.N.R.I.” and “Rotting” influenced both genres and is a mix between them), but as long as the 90 came and models for both genres have a shift, it’s obvious that the mix changed as well, and names as DISSECTION, SACRAMENTUM, NECROPHOBIC, UNANIMATED and others started to build their own musical works and helped to define what would be called Blackened Death Metal. And the load of influences left by them is heard on “The Pyre Aflame”, the first full-length of the North American quintet ABYSSAL FRONT.

Kenan Kerr with the band itself took the responsibility of producing the album, with the sound engineering, mixing and mastering being done by Jamie King at the Basement Studio in Winston Salem, North Carolina between March - May, 2023. The idea was to build something organic and darkened as in the first half of the 90s (due the instrumental tunes used on the recordings), but with updates sone in a way that their musical work can be easily understood. And what a simple (but yet sinister) artwork for the cover, done by the hands of Jota Cravo. The band’s musical identity was constructed under a model of Blackened Death Metal with strong resemblances with the early names of the genres (mainly the ones written above), B-U-T the word ‘identity’ used above serves to state that the quintet has one pulsing under their musical structures. Yes, their blend between Death Metal and Black Metal is personal, filled with eerie ambiences and somber melodies sometimes (inherited from Hard Rock and NWOBHM), on other is brutal and filled with massive blast beats and fast tempos, and with the right balanced temper. Yes, even being their first full-length, they can surprise many fans of the genre.

What is shown on their 10 songs depicts a band that is still working hard to turn its potential into music, but be aware of one thing: the eerie intro “Candescence” and the short massacre “The Pyre Aflame” open the gates for excellent moments as “Diseased Machines (The Pyre Aflame Pt. II)” (here the extreme influences from Death Metal becomes evident due the death growls and intense blast beats on the fast parts, showing a very good work on bass guitar and drums on the rhythmic support), “Awakening (The Pyre Aflame Pt. III)” (here the somber side of their music inherited from Black Metal becomes clear, with excellent shrieks of the vocals and charming melodic arrangements and solos of the guitars in the slow parts, and what great rhythmic contrasts), “Through Body and Bone” (another intro), “Hypothermic Amputation” (another Blackened Death Metal song with catching arrangements and rhythms, and its impossible to resist to its hooking guitar riffs), “Interment” (another sinister intro), “Refuge in a Tomb” (what a great moment of pure Blackened Death Metal, with charming contrasts between fast and slow moments), “Magnetic Flux” and “Coronal Mass Ejection”, so you becomes aware that the throne of Blackened Death Metal has another pretender.

For a first full-length and a band that is just beginning, “The Pyre Aflame” - a ‘must-have item’ - shows that ABYSSAL FRONT is here to stay and conquer!