Review Summary: Solid death metal with a few unexpected turns; in ways you may have not been expecting for a well known death metal album.
Australian death metal for the most part has been really solid. Abramelin does nothing to deter from that thought."Abramelin" is known by many death metal fans as a classic. There are some notable things on this album, such as every musician being fully capable of playing effective death metal. While this album is solid death metal, it does have its flaws. A lot of the songs have solid riffs but sometimes the impact of the riff is weakened due to its un-originality and lack of creativity. The opening track "Misfortune" has groovy passages that only make me wanna bang my head just slightly, but the failure comes from the expected riffs. As this song progresses I find myself being able to predict every riff change and accompanying drum pattern; this happens a lot even throughout the album.
With a high level of predictability, "Abramelin" still has notable moments of doomy aspects where "Stargazer" lingers with heavy riffs and accompanying lead harmonies. The variation of tempos fits well with the overall mid paced feel of Abramelin's first LP. Several tracks contain well fitting solos, which in this case are necessary to break the monotony. "Stargazer" also throws in an acoustic section right at the end of its death metal fury, which does well to fuse into the next track. These occasional standouts are enjoyable but are still not good enough to make this album one of the best a person could find in the genre.
I believe the lack musical drive is due to the high number of band member's coming and going. Between 1989 and 1997 Abramelin went through 5 drummers, 4 guitarists, and 2 bassist'. There may have been a high level of stress in trying to write good music with varying member opinions playing against the unity. Whatever the case may have been, this album is solid death metal and is definitely worth listening to.
