Abandon

Doom metal often arises as an antithesis to the prevailing death/grind trends: Saint Vitus to counter Black Flag, Cathedral to counter Napalm Death, Grief to counter Disrupt. Shattering Gothenburg’s neo-thrash image is Sweden’s Abandon, and while the band count the above as influences, they burrow underneath the subgenre’s base negativity to even darker depths. After a slow-mo drum check, "Trauma Is the Trigger” mirrors the Reverend Bizarre anti-speed aesthetic but in a grimier way and Johan Karlsson’s unintelligible growls are delivered in an unhinged, Khanate-like fashion. "Somnambulistic” features sparse chords that are spaced out then drawn together like a hardcore Yob, while the 14-minute epic "In Hopelessness Enlightened” goes through several Isis/Sleep mood swings yet retains a Rwake outlook. Iron Monkey’s corpse is exhumed in "Piles of Pigs,” and the title track could be a Godflesh outtake from the Streetcleaner sessions played at 16 rpm. After a chilling movie clip, "Will Gladly Perish” plods along like early Grief then double-times it near the end for a Morgion finale. "Stillborn Persistence” starts out gradually like Mindrot then reprises the Godflesh stance for nine more minutes — thanks to David Fredriksson’s bass-string thumps — and the uncredited bonus track shows their less severe Isis side sans vocals by repeating the same chordal regression for 15 minutes. With creepy, negative-image artwork, Abandon succeed in unearthing another soundtrack for all modes of bleakness and misery.