Skinned alive, screaming otherworldly horrors make up the heaping gore filled-to-the-brim horizon ahead of us, a vision spilling over the edge of flat earth with sloshing scenery jammed sky to cosmic sea as the landscapes of this second full-length album from Oakland, California-based surrealistic death metal duo Static Abyss reek outwardly of apocalyptic devastation, securing a realm of doom where boiled-loose flesh and panic-ridden minds stew with poisoned thoughts and visions. ‘Aborted From Reality‘ falls from the crotch of the endtime sluice with a slow squelching slap, a horrified procession unto death which once again features these well regarded musicians scrawling and scratching out an all-too unreal realm of unhinged monstrosities. Though still a brand new entity, a side project between two old pros, there is some life behind the thousand eyes and quickly expanding death/doom metal creep herein, a still experimental ooze which they’ve shaped into something with its own distinct radiation at this point.

Static Abyss formed in early 2021 whenabouts Greg Wilkinson (Deathgrave, Brainoil) joined Autopsy as they were in the midst of recording last year’s ‘Morbidity Triumphant‘, I’d figured these were ideas that’d arisen from jamming together or simply from working together with Chris Reifert on vocals/drums in general. The result was the freshly ripped from the aethyr feeling of their debut LP (‘Labyrinth of Veins‘, 2022) which I’d reviewed favorably last year. That first record leaned more punkish on the spectrum of late 80’s/early 90’s pacing with some complex grooves, harder-hit death/doom metal slogs and a wildly greasy, crazed vocal from Reifert. It was an exciting prospect which’d been highlighted by two conversations happening at once, first the horror-hammer of the vocalist/drummer’s world and how that’d interplay with the inventive rhythms from the two and perhaps more characteristically the lead guitars from Wilkinson featured wild sparks of harmonized and de-harmonized surrealism which I’d described as Greg Ginn high on early Obituary (or nearby) at the time. The spacious, real resonance of that recording still sounds immense and otherworldly and especially compared to the more compressed space with high-ceiling shot kick-and-grind of ‘Aborted From Reality‘. In this sense we’ve gotten Wilkinson’s engineer/producer hand on the full deal and it reads warmer, more dynamically resolved at higher volumes and balanced to feature the leads just as much as Reifert‘s unmistakable grunting freakery.

‘Aborted From Reality‘ is an exponent more estranged in tone, weirding and surreal as Wilkinson‘s exploration of this signature lead guitar focus returns to eerily outstretched guitar harmonies roughly twice as often, finding a way to fit into every nook possible throughout the full listen. At face value this style is technically sound iteration upon the punkish death/doom metal of their first record in an outrageous ‘old school’ showing, but the production here lends a different feeling than what they’d established on the more impromptu recordings of the first Static Abyss album. This time around the full listen focuses on disarray more often but the sound design is cleaner in general, allowing the death/doom metal side of the band to take bigger, more direct mood swings on a few key pieces. After countless listens (well, ~twenty-five) of course the most doomed and atmospheric grunt-splatterers stuck with me most per “Cathedral of Vomit”, closer “The Static Abyss” and to some degree “Unrepentant Mutant Serpent” which features a more common range of lurk, thrash, and weirding leads.

The majority of this record aims for some manner of variety in movement, simpler interplay between say, a doomed introduction and more riled-up chugging or punkish throttle which we find on “Mind Tentacles” as it feeds off the gloomy closure of “Cerebral Ghost” before it with a shambling set of distant leads clashing up front before the grinding mania of the song kicks into a very straightforward hardcore groove; I hate to harp on just how underrated that ‘Acts of the Unspeakable‘ feeling is over the years but it definitely feels like the best parts of ‘Aborted From Reality‘ find a similar hit of crusted, grinding punk-death motion sickness and lean into it. “Poisoned Limbs” is probably the most extreme straight cut right to that side of their gig to date. Otherwise the surrealistic elevator to maniac gorehound spasm we find on “Wormskinned” does a fine enough job highlighting the greater sensation of the full listen, admixtures of disgust and some manner of cosmic horror lurking in the shadows.

As a longtime Autopsy fan this record does check a few of the same boxes per their more psychedelic, doomed and out-there associations over the years but at this point it feels like Static Abyss have started to pierce fully through the jelly of the womb with an imposing enough claw readied to notch their own signature a bit deeper. The unnerving dread of ‘Aborted From Reality‘ was ultimately the major draw here for my taste and had me coming back a good number of times soaking in the overall feeling of the record rather than the minutiae of the riffs. When taking a closer look it’d all felt well-planned, well stated in a maniac sort of way but I’d found myself enjoying the change in sound design moreso than any particular riff, chorus or moment. In that sense it might read a bit samey, soaked in its own juices to the less invested pleb. A high recommendation.

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