Abominor — Opus: Decay

Abominor is a black metal band out of Iceland. Although the band eschews the scene’s rather incestuous mix of members (apart from a brief stint from drummer Bjarni Einarsson of Sinmara) they share an undeniably similar musical palate.

The music is much heavier on the low end than similar Icelandic projects, with thick burrowing riffs tunneling beneath the country’s trademark Svartidauði styled dissonant spirals. Where Abominor stands apart from their countrymen is in the songwriting department. While many of the other Icelandic bands seem unstructured in a free-floating atmospheric sense, Abominor frequently sounds like an extended jam session. There isn’t much of a lead guitar during these sections, and they trudge along aimlessly under pointless barbs of dissonant guitar.

Even with these differences, Abominor doesn’t really distinguish itself from similar Icelandic bands. It has a deeper roar for vocals not unlike Misþyrming, some of the dissonance of any of the other bands, but none of the focus. Opus: Decay is a short release at around 20 minutes, but it doesn’t make much of an impact. A lack of identity could be leveled at any of these bands, but Abominor suffers the most from this facelessness. It’s not bad, but you could listen to just about any of the other bands and get more out of your listening experience.