THE ABSENCE – The Absence

RELEASE YEAR: 2024

BAND URL: https://theabsenceofficial.bandcamp.com/

As is my custom, stated earlier, many times in my reviews, in order to gain a perspective on new material, I often listen through the back discography, especially with more known and established acts. I am sometimes surprised how my feelings about certain albums, especially those reviewed here, change over time and the Floridian melodeathrashers, The Absence, is no exception. Upon re-listening, I found A Gift For The Obsessed²⁰¹⁸ inferior to its follow up, Coffinized²⁰²¹ (both on M-Theory Audio) yes, the exact opposite of the position I held back in 2021, making “Coffinized” their second best, establishing the seemingly effortlessly fantastic Riders Of The Plague²⁰⁰⁷, imperfect though it was, as their magnum opus. As a band arriving at the dusk of the melodeath progression, The Absence were left with the unenviable task of making their inevitably derivative Gothenburg melodeath sound exciting and engaging when they debuted with the eponymous²⁰⁰⁴ EP (have you forgotten, guys?), and the subsequent debut full length From Your Grave²⁰⁰⁵ and then blowing a lot of people away, myself included, with the aforementioned “Riders Of The Plague” (both on Metal BladeRecords), an effect which can only work for a while before it starts sounding like an old record skipping in its most engaging places, that effect foreshadowed on the subsequent Enemy Unbound²⁰¹⁰ (the last one for Metal Blade), with the songwriting quality decreased and the At The Gates influence, at times, showing a bit too obviously which is probably why they disappeared for 8 years, successfully returning with “A Gift For The Obsessed” album followed by “Coffinized”. And now that old record feeling is fully present on this, their 6th album, ironically, the eponymous.

As we all know and heard, there are three (excluding laziness) reasons for naming your record after the band: 1. Introduction to the sound (so usually the debut album) 2. realignment and 3. restatement of what the band is all about. None of those make sense for The Absence²⁰²⁴, as, in one sense, this is their most progressive album since “Riders”, in another their most vapid and even soulless material since “Enemy”. Take the two best and most engaging tracks here, the back to back “Vagrant Death” and “Planetary Mortuary”, the former heavily reminiscent of Soilwork’s “Future Sons” and the latter also Soilwork-ing, both with excellent melodies and progressive touches harkening back to Death’s extremely seminal Symbolic¹⁹⁹⁵, or the infectious main riff in “The Silent Eye” with the Arch Enemy-ic chorus and, unmistakably, ending straight out of Death’s “Thousand Eyes”, all testimony to their songwriting ability seemingly intact since “Coffinized”. But even in those highlights, one thing strikes the most: the highly inoffensive sound that recalls more polished Angela Gossow Arch Enemy productions, howbeit with even less emphasis on heaviness (think Khaos Legions²⁰¹¹ but with a bad production). The decision to, for lack of a better word, castrate the Gothenburg sound is thoroughly puzzling, and these three tracks are the ones least stricken from this virus, which is a nice segue to the flaws.

The flaws are many. Frankly, despite most of the songs being at a good (4.5) level, this is their most unfocused album since, well, I don’t know, maybe the debut, although, comparatively, the debut was pretty focused. Even “Enemy Unbound” actually had better production than this, and when the songs were interesting, they were at their most convincing combined with the still, comparatively powerful, production. Here, most of the material sounds like diet The Absence, and even Jamie Stewart (vocals) sounds reserved as if he really didn’t feel it and couldn’t wait to wrap it up so that he could go back to his regular job, which he almost certainly has since, to quote the late Chuck Schuldiner of the mighty Death, metal ain’t no goldmine and a man’s got to eat.

“I hope the progressive spirit will prevail over simplicity on future endeavors”, wrote I in my review of “Coffinized” and I am sorry to report I this was a hope that made one ashamed of his expectations. The only thing that comes to mind when evaluating The Absence’s 6th album is that they intended to both wrap up the band’s existence and go out with a bang, but if so, they’re going out with an exasperated sigh when we think back on how effortlessly great they once were.