Mental Horror
Abyss of Hypocrisy
7.4
It's brutal. Oh-so-brutal. And Brazilian. So you know the drill. Non-stop blasting drums, guitars playing at inhumanly fast speeds, thick production, and low-low grumbling vocals. Krisiun/Nephasth/Rebaelliun-style. You know what it is. And you either love it or you hate it.
It's got a lot of atmosphere to it - either intentionally or due to the bad production. It almost has the same hypnotic effect as an underground Norwegian black metal release, but completely different as it's straight brutal death metal. One of the more notable things is that even on the first track, they break into something that sounds like scrambled static, which might actually be some guitar shredding with a few odd effects on it. Although unusual, it's welcome - particularly in an album that might otherwise be mistaken as another Krisiun clone - right on down to the random guitar solos, which only occasionally sync up with the music. The inclusion of the very rare and abrupt chunky guitar parts really helps the band become a little more tolerable - I wish there was more of it. On "Angel of Vengeance", the pummeling drumming remains, but the guitar progressions sound more akin to one of the thrashier black metal bands, if it weren't for the production keeping them firmly implanted in their death metal soil. They do give you a slight break on the title track, which is a really well-done acoustic melody, and on "Shurpu Baragal", an amazing and eerie looped-track. So although there isn't much variation, there IS a little. If only there was a way to combine the two awesome forces of overly-brutal death metal and these interludes.
You ever do that shit where like, you can't see something, so you adjust with your hearing to compensate? Like if you're in your car, driving in the dark, searching for someone's address and you have music on, you turn it down for some reason? Or if I can't see the TV, I'll turn the volume up? Well, the point is - the production on Abyss of Hypocrisy reminds me of that. The vocals are mixed so low, the drums seem quiet and the guitars are so undiscernible - I keep turning it up, expecting to be able to hear one of them better. But I can't. It's just a big wall. A nice big wall, granted, but I'd really like to be able to hear what the hell they're playing. Remarkably, the bass actually sounds pretty good and well defined. A complete shock, I'd have to say.
The same thing always happens to me when I'm listening to the ultra brutal shit. I get tired from over-stimulation. They're just playing too damn fast with virtually no relief. And it's fifty minutes long. If I were on a road trip listening to this, I probably would've already gone mad and wrecked my car intentionally. And don't get me wrong, I love this shit. This is a great album. I just can't handle it. Still though, it's undeniable, there are certified addicts to this sort of death metal. They're the ones that'll truly appreciate Mental Horror's Abyss of Hypocrisy.
