ABHOR – Ab Luna Lucenti, Ab Noctua Protecti
- Posted on 28-08-2011
Italian act Abhor play a strange brand of Black Metal. While the drums, guitars and vocals are pretty conventional in BM terms, there is a heavy reliance on keyboards, including synths and clean piano, which are used to provide key melodies while the guitars are lay down a backing rhythm. It is an approach that works quite well.
At times we get soft pan-pipes redolent of Beherit, while at other times we get mystical chimes and even slightly psychedelic notes for that horror-movie soundtrack feel. Samples of voices and violin add to the effect.
Overall, this is a pretty successful effort and an enjoyable and accessible listen even if we have heard most of the elements elsewhere before. The world created by Abhor is seamless, but the problem is that it doesn’t become more compelling on repeated listens, meaning that after you’ve had your initial fun with this one, it would be straight off to the bottom of your playlist, unlikely to gain much attention in the future.