Abaroth - Dosed EP (2021)

Abaroth is a Worcester, Massachusetts based black metal band which has existed on and off for the last two decades, with a couple full-lengths to their name and sharing a couple members with another band, Sarcomancy, whose demo I've covered in the past. The style for their latest recording, the Dosed EP, marks an evolution into a slightly more hybridized sound than what I can remember from their last effort Emissary of the Void, which was pretty straightforward atmospheric black metal. Here, you've got more of a blend of epic heavy metal riffs redolent of early 90s Bathory, but with a bit more of a rock & roll DNA that I could trace all the way back to fucking KISS. The vocals, however, stay extremely rasp heavy and black metal, much like prior recordings, and they keep some of the more intense, thundering extreme drums.

It's a combo that works out surprisingly well, and at times reminds me a little of the Immortal side project 'I', only this is a little heavier, and the lyrical themes are quite different, instead of snow blasted mountains and dancing gleefully among the pines in our corpse paint, we're dealing with subjects like "Sex Magician" and "Consensually Exchanging Bodily Fluids". The band describes themselves far more amusingly than I ever could on their Bandcamp page, but it's definitely a strange disconnect that one wouldn't expect to accompany music of such an epic, bulky architecture, and thus a unique choice. The bass lines are thick and fluid, the guitars have an unapologetic, powerful simplicity to them, projected at a billion megawatts across a tundra, and I dig when they break out a very simple, repetitious melodic line above them, which absolutely recalls records like Hammerheart or Between Two Worlds. There are also some crooning, soaring vocals here which help break up the snarling, and the whole thing is pretty damn unexpected from a New England band; loud and fun and yet...kind of serious business, too.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://abaroth.bandcamp.com/