BlackLab – Abyss

New Heavy Sounds

Abyss is the second proper album from the dark witch doom duo BlackLab from Osaka in Japan, and carries on their mission to pummel any pretenders to the doom throne to death. As a duo the sound is big and live, I would imagine it would scream into your ears from the pits of the darkest beyond. Its a sound that unnerves you as much as it hammers you in the face.

Big, slow Reverend Bizarre-style riffs lick around “Insanity”, with some wonderful playing from Yuko Morino, and static chords hit in as the vocals start. Here the band remind me a little bit of UT more than traditional doom. Chia Shiraishi’s drumming builds in complexity as the vocals begin to scream at you and the riff gets tougher. That said, there is quite a psychedelic edge to this, more so than on their previous release. The track is a brutal wake-up call full of high-octane energy. Eerie vocals introduce “Fade And Melt” before the guitar kicks in and leaves no mercy in its wake. The chorus is almost hummable as the guitar and drums fall over themselves trying to push to their limits and dragging you down in a Satanic rapture.

“Weed Dream” has a Black Sabbath vibe as it jauntily hops around its main chord sequence and full-on pounding drum action. You can almost smell the hash oil in the air as the notes tumble around each other, adding to this head-shaking monolithic rapture to the green god. “Amusement Park Of Terror” brings the sludge back into play as the riff crawls around like some ancient terror from an HP Lovecraft story and the lead guitar builds into a cacophony straight from Hades as the track fades. “Forked Road” starts off more like an early ’80s heavy metal track, with chugging guitars and soaring vocals and is probably the most instantly accessible track on the album as it makes Megadeth become doom in one mighty crushing blow.

“Chained” has a swinging doom swagger about its big blasting riff as we fall into darkness of haunted trees and shadows at night. The lyrics appear to be about a relationship that is ending and the feelings surrounding it. “Sleepless Night” starts with a rolling drum pattern before some chords that wouldn’t be out of place on a Budgie album kick in. In fact, the lead guitar sound reminds me of Tony Bourge in the mid-seventies and so sounds wonderful. “Sun” starts with big hanging chords of Babylon before a rasping vocal dominates over massive chords that could topple buildings and leave desolation lying all around. Its a powerful track that remains suspended in the air long after the album stops spinning.

For a duo, BlackLab have a big powerful, take-no-prisoners sound. Here again they prove themselves to be top of the doom metal game by producing an album of pure unrelenting riffs and hymns for fire falling from the sky. Abyss is an uncompromising record full of eight of the most powerful slabs of sludge you will hear this year. Hopefully when the world gets back to normal and gigs happen again they will come to the UK so I can finally witness them live.

-Gary Parsons-