Review Summary: Some familiar territory, but done right.
Abolishment of Flesh is a death metal band from Texas. The band's first full length under the name Abolishment was much more of a relentlessly brutal affair but they've slowly dialed it back and gotten more into incorporating melody into the fold. Their past dabblings in more brutal territory give this album an interesting flair in it's approach, culminating into a pretty satisfying melting pot of death metal diversity. Some melodic tendencies, an old school semi technical leaning, and tastes of that nasty Texan brutality make for an interesting blend when all wrapped into one package.
The guitar playing on this album is magnificent. There's plenty of moments scattered throughout featuring breathtaking leads and every solo is masterfully crafted to fit the riffs and grooves that surround them. The songwriting here displays a great deal of talent when it comes to creating beautiful melodies that blend effortlessly with the rhythmic attacks that they bounce back and forth with. The opening track starts right in with this approach which leads into a nice little clean break before transitioning to a pummeling groove that hits the spot. Early on Abolishment is dishing out some stuff that reminds me of mid era Death and that is certainly not a bad thing.
The track "Behind Deceitful Eyes" uses vocal layering to great effect. Vocally this album is actually fairly diverse. The main approach is a standard growl with some screams mixed in. The layering is used sporadically and there's also some shrieks here and there. The title track has some unexpected cleans thrown in and surprisingly they work quite well and actually pop up on what I would consider a standout track on the album. The aforementioned layering really creates a nice, menacing tone throughout the duration of the record and adds some bite to many moments without going overboard with it.
When "Self Righteous Regurgitation" hits with it's slam inducing opening riff the album kicks into high gear. Everything becomes a bit more sharp and dangerous for a bit moving forward. Regardless of the level of hostility Abolishment is working at the solos never fail to be masterfully crafted. The title track kicks off with some awesome tapping that paints the picture of one tumbling into a bottomless pit where some beast awaits. An epic simplistic groove follows that allows the events to play out.
Overall In the Presence of Darkness is a pretty damn solid display of death metal goodies. These guys dish out a nice little smorgasbord of death metal variety proficiently. They nail the Death worship early on and weave in their earlier brutal death metal influences in a cohesive way that really works. Their previous albums were solid in terms of songwriting but the production typically left something to be desired. With this latest effort the murkiness that brought them down in the past has been cleared up. There's enough diversity here that the album should appeal to most death metal fans regardless of their preference when it comes to the details. It also closes out with an absolutely sick cover of a Sepultura classic. JAM IT!!!
