"Abyss of Existence" is the debut album from Italian OSDM band REAPING FLESH.  The trio find themselves firmly ensconced at the foot of the death metal altar, where MORBID ANGEL, OBITUARY, and DEATH loom over them like the unholy trinity of evil. Based on the allegiance the three have in honoring the song-writing and production made infamous by these legendary bands, it's pretty clear that they are ready to leave their pus-filled mark all over the streets of Milan. If you want your OSDM to be no-nonsense, no-frilled packages of sonic hatred, than this band just might scratch that bloody, open wound.

Opener "Garden of Grief" starts off with an ominous, ambient instrumental that lingers and then abruptly launches into the first proper slab of death "Elements of Life". The vocals are buried under the mix, Marco Tarfuri's guitars are confident and muscular, while bassist Andrea "Veon" Marini and drummer Federico de Bernardi di Vlasera keep the trio firmly entrenched in the body bags and mass graves of humanity.  The production is suitably lo-fi, the bass barely recognizable, and the guitars have that fuzzed out bee-swarm that typifies this kind of old school death. The fast parts are brutally fast- di Vlasera sounds like a goddamn man possessed taking it out on his kit. I'm not sure what Marini is singing about, but I'm pretty sure it's not the vitamins and minerals you need to maintain a healthy diet, particularly when the next song is about the LIES OF EXISTENCE. "Lies of Existence" starts off with a (relatively speaking) soaring guitar melody that collapses into a dissonant array of tones, developing into inevitable blast beats, tremolo-picking and growling.  It's the bread-and-butter of this type of music, the kind of sonic conglomeration that bands have been doing for almost forty years now, and REAPING FLESH is making no excuses.

"Self Incarnation" continues the theme, an almost seamless transition from the previous song to the next.  It's pummeling, unforgivable death metal.  They have seen your bells and whistles and crushed them underneath steel-toed boots. You will not be getting anything new here from these Italian heathens. A deliciously noisy lead guitar brings the band about as close to 'psychedelic' as you are going to get- there are flashes of this kind of creativity that may hint at something greater to come, but they come so few and far between that the listening experience becomes a bit monotonous (to say the least). "Pit of Eternity" is a sub-3:00 slab of death meat that starts off with an odd 6/8 time signature before- you guessed it- blasting off into the depths of spatial depravity, boring a death metal hole into the mantle of the Earth. It might be the album's strongest track, simply because it's the one track that's the best example of this type of metal. "Fear Without Shape" closes the album, a six-minute journey to the bowels of hell, fear made incarnate and dripping in human flesh. Beginning with a doom-inspired groove that implies the worst is yet to come, Tarfuri's guitars buzz through like a chainsaw through the spire of a wooden church.  A dual guitar melody comes in about two minutes into the song, giving it an almost atmospheric sense of misery. Interestingly, the song never breaks out of this emotional morass, keeping the listener bogged down in the depthless despair.

Ultimately, though, "Abyss of Existence" lingers in the netherworld of OSDM.  There's a lot about the album that's true to the essence of the genre, but without the risk-taking that can take a band to the next level. There are hints of creative urgency here- the opening song and the last indicate the band knows how to bookend an album, and di Valsera's drums are often inspiring and thrilling- but at this point these artistic moments don't come often enough.  It's not a bad album per se, but in a genre that's loaded with sound-alike bands, REAPING FLESH isn't doing themselves any favors here.