With the choir’s red-eyed blur asway on the right and the organist aflame on the left the unnamed figure dead centre the pulpit completes their unholy trinity with his guttural vibrato, an ominous sermon dedicated to hair-raising seventh revision of the vile tome’s curse as Genoa, Italy-based doom metal trio ABYSMAL GRIEF preach the hungered call of the soil below. On the very cusp of completing their third decade of alignment these fellowes reinforce an enduring campaign of dark-black doomed delirium with a seventh full-length album no less devout in its disgust. The horror of an ancient tradition returned ‘Taetra Philosophia‘ serves to demystify all offensive prophecies fed to ailing minds via their necrotized eldritch oratorial take on Italian doom esoterica.

Abysmal Grief have been active since 1996 or so as a band who’d endeavor to stand apart as a representative for the Italian doom metal tradition as well as a stylistically consistent outlier willing to pull from the limitless underdark. From their first demo tape (‘Funereal‘, 1996) one can experience most every facet of their signature today be it their organ (or harpsichord, or both) possessed hand, occasional nods to extreme metal vocal expression, and a uniquely sinister ‘old school’ doom metal temperament rooted in 80’s United States and Italian craft. I’ve long been a fan of the band’s use of horror, the occult, and unrepentant blasphemies in service to graven atmosphere as well as purposeful mockery of religion. Though I’d like to cover their whole discography here I’d suggest ‘Strange Rites of Evil‘ (2015) as an important benchmark beyond the 2000’s, an album which mocked the false hope of a world gone mad, degrading the arrogance of faith and the damnation it manifests through widespread ignorance. Whether you are a fan of true ancient calling (Paul Chain, Tony Tears, Mortuary Drape) or the patient dirges found in earlier Hellenic black metal (Varathron, et al.) the band’s dark metamorphosis of these elements is (again) one of the most consistent in this realm and an evolution worth witnessing from demo-era ’til today.

While I emphasize the focused, steadied hand of their creation over the years as a feat centered on the subject of mortality, death and its inevitable summon Abysmal Grief‘s music is both reactive to their environs as well as evolving within unhindered vision. From droning, slow-slugged stuff at the peaking Reverend Bizarre-adjacent (in timeline, not style) years to jogging keys-assisted tuneful reap their capabilities have scaled with experience rather than ambitions beyond the real thing. The band’s most recent LP ‘Funeral Cult of Personality‘ (2021) reflected a different sort of unrest, it was not quite a pandemic album in subject but one that was marked by a level of focus made possible per band leader/guitarist and drummer Regen Graves isolating due to burnt attitudes in their circle and an uncertain future for the band. It was interesting as a fan because the material itself was changed, darker from a different stance, the sort of re-angled gloom one’d want after the adventurous ‘Blasphema Secta‘ (2018) before it. There was some wonder where the reactionary affect of the band might manifest within ‘Taetra Philosophia‘, an album which doesn’t escape these connections made between religion, superstition and the fools made by each.

What fire exists within ‘Taetra Philosophia‘ is stoked as ever Abysmal Grief return a trio no less concerned with their unfinished business, still finding something worth burning down within the minds of zealots and fools. The seasoned fan is more than likely showing up for album number seven expecting an organ grinding, guts-fed sermon atop the riff at a 33rpm marching pace and in this sense the entire signature and knack of the band is unscathed by the four year process that’d birthed this latest iteration. The ear pricking taint of the band’s work is yet a mix of occult heavy rock movement, a ritualistic stance which feeds into the touch of arcane black metal found throughout their discography. Though opener “Deus Cornatus” is unmistakably heavy metal in its charge its arrangement, particularly the synth/organ dealt, takes the tonal char of early 90’s black metal and makes ominous feature of it especially in the ~minute which develops beyond the ~2:05 minute mark. What develops from that voice serves a maze-like dirge, one of the premier specialties of their craft.

With consideration for the full listen Abysmal Grief are characteristically “in the pocket”, or, void of exploratory floundering as we hit the title track (“Taetra Philosophia”) dropping into this slow stamping mode and rolling out in turn between the riff, the ride and oration from vocalist/keyboardist Labes C. Necrothytus. His throat gripping vocals give plenty of space to riff, to rip a solo when needed, and to let the song ride beneath its organ work as (emulated?) strings stir the piece into intrigue. Consider the atmosphere one of growling levitation, a possession creeping across their congregation and for my taste one of the more immersion granting songs on approach of the full listen. The point of head-nodding approval where all crucifix drop from their nails is otherwise the plodding dance of Side A closer “Ambulacrum Luctus”, likely the song to best fit the description given thus far as the ambulatory traipse provided resembles the slow-stepped majesty of Hellenic black metal to some degree.

Though there are a number of similarly inspired groups the world over Abysmal Grief haven’t been replicated with any real success over the years, a combination of unique voicing and long-standing fixation upon doom metal tradition. In this way the “weird” found within comes from diction and atmosphere more than the experimentation with the avant-garde, or, elements of progressive rock one’d find in their compatriots. In this way a song like “Corpus Mortuum” might use an odd touch of synth here and there for horror affect but the greater impact of the song isn’t so far from an early Saint Vitus record as it plays out; The tools these folks use to create a world of their own comes from two major fonts, the character which arises from horrified narration and the rhythms in service to it: “Speculum Fractum” is a fine example of the band experimenting with the cinema of their craft as the slow burn of the piece carries its macabre carnival stepping pace into a point of funereal rest, a long organ fed respite in the middle of the song. There the necromancy of the crypt calls the bones to scrape and sends water dripping from the walls as shackles trill low in the background ’til a whispered curse provides the peak of the moment. Again, there are a few bands who could achieve this kind of moment and pull it off but perhaps no other who could turn a curse spoken in an undercroft into a swinging and soloing ride out without losing the scene.

Self-produced and mixed/mastered in house ‘Taetra Philosophia‘ repeats the many functional successes achieved beyond ‘Strange Rites of Evil‘ while more-or-less replicating the practical space achieved within ‘Funeral Cult of Personality‘. All instrumentation is represented in place and personage with most of the focus given to the triad of the vocals, guitars and keyboards as they both reinforce one another and trade in spotlight while the bass guitar is characteristically neither major feature or even the occasional tirade. The most impressive voicing of the lot and perhaps the knack most developed over the years is of course the keyboards, the synth and organ most often touted as Abysmal Grief‘s signature and this indulgence (via “Lume ad Urnam” and “Lamentum”) creates the right sort of hysteria per the subject matter at hand. The greater effect of the band’s work here is familiar, only slightly adventurous beyond their long-developed cohesion, yet consistent in its addictive qualities where sinister organs thread through the mind on recall unto compulsion. A high recommendation.

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