What we got here is a German band called Black Abyss, and their album titled as 'Angels Wear Black'... Another "black"/goth ghastliness from the land of beer, bratwurst and big boobs??? My ears say: "Thankfully no!"

Black Abyss play darkened heavy metal mixed with power metal and thrash metal bits. Well, what did you expect from a German band, then? To begin with, Black Abyss are another example of "heard it all before" bands, but to their credit, while there's nothing new to hear, at least the song writing and performances are above average. Sometimes a lot. When I was browsing through an outlet list of cheapo records and gave this one (hey, 3 Euros...) a listen, the voice of Oliver Hornung is the first thing that catched my attention. No helium!!! He mostly stays in mid-range which is fine by me. He utilizes clean singing, coarse throat vocals, and can also do it, if the music needs it, the calm way, but mainly he is letting it rip. This guy has a great voice!

So, how's the music, then? Along with insignificant individuality, the songs are pretty much predictable. The lyrics are bland, totally predictable, too. 'Damnation' is a real thrashy powerhouse, which immediately drilled into my brain. Great riffs and guitar solo, fantastic vocals, a really powerful piece. 'Unholy War' begins with very Running Wild-esque riffage, and then enter into power metal realms. But it's still very catchy and yes, above average stuff. 'Dark Legacy' continues the same way, but slower 'Shadows of the Past' takes turn to darker territory, making me think of Iced Earth because of those non-distorted guitars and the song is not million miles away from something by Brainstorm. 'Pure Evil' is a ramming, yet uninteresting heavy metal song. 'Rebellion' continues in that vein, as well as 'I Don't Care' and 'The Messenger', but drop the "un" prefix apiece. 'Time' brings back the power metal, sounding totally German. Another highlight for me, together with the opener, is the title track which is an evident Iron Maiden tribute, with its great vocal melodies, guitar harmonies, riffs, holler part and the bass/vocals ending, but including some really shit synth work. In general, if there was 3 levels for cheesiness; really cheesy, mid-cheesy and not-so-cheesy, this one would go between mid and not-so.

The production work is bad, unbelievably bad!!! The sound is of cheap demo level stuff. The vocals are the only thing that sound good. Drums are double-dyed: They generally sound like machine-made, and hi-hats are audible for 3 seconds on one of the songs. There's hissing, clinking and clanking. Guitars sound hollow, powerless. I can't listen to this with headphones, because the sound simply kills songs.

'Angels Wear Black' is the band's third album already. This leaves a lot to be desired. Not so much songwise, and especially not performance-wise, but come on, the guys are (were???) on Massacre Records and their album sounds like this (make an anagram from t-h-i-s)!!! Black Abyss are an interesting acquaintance, and definitely deserve a listen by those who like dark heavy metal and don't shudder about power metal elements. Great vocals, some good songs, cocked up production job. The combined score is...

Rating: 6+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
01/05/2008 22:49