Pennsylvania's Abysme clearly have no problem wearing their influences on their tattered sleeves. With a very clear influence from Swedish death metal, Abysme worship at the altar of Dismember, Apshyx, and take cues from acts like Immolation and Pungent Stench. "Strange Rites" is a trite and devout offering to the gods of ultra-distorted guitars, fuzzy bass, and throat ripping vocals. With influences like this, it would seem Abysme have taken an already used formula and do not have a unique sound of their own. But in a way, they most definitely do.Overall, all the traits of pure death metal mixed with the sound and style of Swedish death metal are ultimately what make this album great. While most death metal acts are attempting to out blast each other, or hold competitions of who can sound most like an injured pig, Abysme slow the tempo down, making the eerie more eerie and the aggressive more aggressive. While the guitar style does not change throughout, the riffs do not get tired. With a healthy mix of beefy power chords and striking tremolo picking, the albums timing and precision make it lightyears ahead of what other USDM acts are giving out nowadays. Dismember's influence stands clear throughout the whole album, but it is more of an appreciation than a full on tribute. Taking this slow, daunting death metal sound and mixing it with a doomy sludge aesthetic, Abysme lean to the dark side of metal all throughout this album. While the influences are what make the band sound how it is, the overall mood of the album is more planted in a blackened thrash metal aura than anything else. While they do make straight forward death metal, Abysme take the production mostly used on a black metal album and use it to make something essentially evil. Not once does the album wane, either. The straight-for-your-throat style is what make this album extreme, and yet does not impose itself on you either.In all, Abysme seem to know what sound they want, and stick with it all the way through. Most will dispel them as a Dismember tribute band, or one who would rather sound like a legendary act of the past than find a sound that is for themselves. To those naysayers I say this, the band has a slight edge to a formula used by countless others. Dark, moody, and overall doom laden this album is a perfect precursor for what just may be the beginning of an underground band's rise to infamy. As a whole, this is what death metal should be, and Abysme are certainly aware of that.
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