Formed in 2001, Luxembourg hailing metallers Abstract Rapture especially drew praise with the release of their album Earthcrush. Now seven years after its successful release and “significant” line-up changes the band have its successor primed to re-stir attention and such the craft and enterprise within Hollow Motion it is easy to see the quintet courting the biggest spotlights and plaudits.
Woven in a tapestry of metal bred flavours courting everything from groove and nu to death and thrash metal, the band’s sound and new album is a cauldron of adventure and imagination embracing the familiar and unique. Hollow Motion is a dark melancholic proposition yet a beast with a discontent fuelled fire in its belly and attitude nurtured tension in its breath.
The album opens with A Promise from the Ghouls and immediately lured ears with its rhythmic invitation, the teasing collusion of infectious beats with a dark earthy bass grumble devious. Swiftly the predacious edge of the guitar joins the threat, it all soon sparking into a rapacious stroll further accentuated by the potent tones of Dritt. The swinging grooves and continually intimidating edge of the track made for a compelling and infectious proposal unafraid to twist and turn with further imagination and creative trespassing sparked by the melodic and sonic prowess of guitarists Alex and Nol. It is an ear and appetite grabbing start to the album which continues through next up The Cancer in Your Soul.
The second track is instantly a more predatory proposal, almost stalking the senses even as melodic and grungier hues spring forward from within its ill-intent. Individual craft joins united endeavour as the song blossoms with each adventurous move, it maybe not as strikingly manipulative as its predecessor but just as imaginatively captivating before Endless Chapter grips ears with its own wily exploits. Again the swings of Spit incite as they bite, nagging grooves entangling his tenacious strikes as vocals incite. Across the album there is an essence of Mudvayne meets Disturbed meets Machine Head and no more so than within this gripping offering.
Blood-Red Revolt brought even stronger enticement and incitement to body and pleasure, the track a definite favourite, writhing as it fingers the imagination with its boisterously manipulative and widely flavoursome antics before, following the brief chillingly haunting and increasingly threatening lead of …and Winter Comes, the predacious Inner Plague prowls and teasing the senses with its own venomous but darkly seductive threat. As ever the tenebrific yet tempting growl of Maks’ bass fuels the alluring menacing; constantly keeping the listener on their toes alongside the drums even as melodic flames and enterprise blazes away.
From one outstanding moment to another as Venom Skies descends on the senses with intrusively skittish beats to the fore before its sonic spiral springs another web of riveting and toxic conspiracy built on craft and imagination. The swing of the track is inescapable, its resourceful weave innovative even as familiar hues add to its appealing canvas.
Through the simply invigorating deeds of The Fear Industry and the calmer but similarly enticing Hollow Soul, ears were only firmly held; both tracks and especially the first of the pair offering snares of sound and touch which left us simply greedy for more before Ego Non Te Absolvo (A Drunken Conclusion) brought the album to a destructively intimate and provocative close.
It is a fascinating, tormented end to an album which is almost intense in its dark tone whilst bordering the kaleidoscopic in a sound which still embraces a particular hue that is individual to Abstract Rapture. Hollow Motion will be an introduction to a great many even being the band’s third full-length, one announcing Abstract Rapture to all as being one striking and thrilling proposition.
Hollow Motion is out now, distributed by Black N ‘Purple Records, across most stores.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/abstractrapture/
Pete RingMaster 18/12/2018
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
Ignite opens up with Do You Know, a piano drawing ears as rhythms rustle together in the background. Soon the track is fully to the fore, not forceful but certainly magnetic as synth and guitar cradle the rap and following clean vocal persuasion. Though it suggests it might, the song never quite explodes into the hinted furor but persistently entices with melodic caresses, vocal dexterity, and a mercurial rhythmic attack.
It opens up with Sticks & Stones, the song rising up through the theatre of piano intimation with Frhetoric jabbing vocals leading jousting riffs and teasing rhythms. The guitar of Matt Ress becomes more irritable as a chorus forms, the track swiftly settling back down to repeat its creative cycle. Cole Sław’s keys continue to lure and suggest as the punchy touch of Frisco beats impose; a mix of the familiar and boldly fresh courting the appetite like a mix of The Kennedy Soundtrack and Papa Roach tinted by an industrial/darkwave hue something akin to Pink Turns Blue.
The potent starts quickly has ears keenly attentive, recent single Counter Culture stirring their appetites further with its metal bred imagination and punk infused quarrel. Melodic twists and clean vocal union with the rawer snarling tones of Campbell brings richer intrigue and captivation, the bass of Steve Cogden prowling it all with a brooding menace as the song grows an increasingly compelling web of flavours and imagination.
The electro waltz of David F**king Bowie is no mean spirit in stirring ears or appetite either, its gait and energy a calmer but lively instigator swiftly tempting forceful participation from vocal chords. Its celestial meanders allow a breath to be taken though equally it leads to a hankering to be back romping which the song subsequently provides before Spider stands centre stage to call on ears and his flock with Cult Leader. An anthemic hard rock meets glam punk roar again very difficult not to get caught up in it does lacks some of the unique sparks of its predecessors but leaves the listener wanting little.
The album opens up with Find My Path and a lure of melodic metal with a darker bass resonance which increasingly looms in on the senses before igniting in a blaze of emotive ire and sonic intensity. Even so it holds its tempest in check, teasing and coaxing attention whilst intriguing the imagination with its unpredictable bait. As it slips into the ethers, the following Words Unspoken is boiling up to launch its sonic lava on the senses. Within seconds a great groove has body and spirit inflamed; its open Pantera inspirations extra pleasure as it burns away. There is a disorder to the song, a tempestuousness which threatens as it pleasures with the band’s vocal backing to the magnetic growls of Snyder excellent, an anthemic call in the heat of the song’s furnace.
Health for Wealth churns up the senses next with its own web of waspish grooves, surly dynamics, and choleric attitude; American Wrecking Company lacing it with a belligerence caked but open melodic dexterity which just lights up appetite and imagination while its successor, The Burning lives up to its name in touch and atmosphere. It feels like a sonic witch hunt, every note and syllable a combative infestation of psyche preying on ears and the world but entwined with a flirtation of grooves and enterprise which keeps the track on a constant evolution within its fractious pyre.