With a new set of cosmonauts in crew and fresh portals to the black ocean beyond in their sights Columbus, Ohio-based atmospheric death metal trio ABYSSAL RIFT tunnel forth, readied for fresh obsidian-eyed ventures per this sophomore full-length album. Rooted in a pastiche of sub-genre tics old and new ‘Relics of Great Ash‘ bears a unique palette in the variously grooved, spaced and assault-readied modes displayed within. The end result is an entertaining crawl through often unpredictive and/or heady spaces where they’ve done well to uphold death metallic pummel as the main ingredient.

Abyssal Rift was one of at least two extreme metal projects to come from musician Matt Auxier (6th Circle, Eye, The Pretty Weapons, et al.) during the early years of global pandemia, contrasting the dark industrial metal of Ash Prison with an eclectic form of atmospheric death metal. Beyond a sort of caverncore-esque understanding of death metal canon Auxier‘s intent appears to have been incorporation of classic prog, psych and shoegazing sounds into the tension of their debut LP (‘Extirpation Dirge‘, 2023). The height of that first album, or at least one broadly representative piece, was probably the extent of “The Scourge” where blackened death eruptions crossed wires with eerie Goblin-esque synth and sludgier tumult. The band’s (via a new trio lineup) second album aims for an aggressive take outright.

Opener “Consummate Design” echoes the structure of most songs you’ll find on ‘Extirpation Dirge‘ a series of riffs not that far removed from the post-‘Profane Nexus‘ era Incantation modus as Abyssal Rift hustle through its first few minutes before breaking into mid-to-slow pace gear shifting melt. It isn’t the most thrilling start to ‘Relics of Great Ash‘ outright in terms of riffcraft but it does communicate the ‘new old school’ buzz of their work to start alongside a knack for dark ambient fixation as the piece ends. The title track, “Relics of Great Ash”, and its slowly sludged trepidation is all the more compelling in contrast to those opening moments as feedback juiced movements, doomed dissonance and a general refusal to break into all out barrage for the first ~few minutes makes for a palpable strand of tension in observance. The space ambient drift-out in passage towards the final third of the eight minute piece, brief as it is, reignites some of the characteristics that’d made the band’s first record stand out.

Side A generally impresses as a faster, fleshier space-cased vision beyond Abyssal Rift‘s debut though the major feature of those first three songs arrives within their escape from the brutality afforded each piece, creating simple enough contrast as key spectacle. I’m not sure I’d been outright impressed with their general rhythm guitar thread ’til “The Death of God” began to trudge more diabolically through tremolo-picked mountaineering and percussive brutal black/death swatted movements; The expectation of a mid-song break or sewn-in interludium sort of threatens everywhere else on the album and while that isn’t a bad thing I’d appreciated the more straight forward showings of muddier death and doomed-out riffcraft on the trek through Side B. “Surrealistic Visions” follows along in suit to some degree but features its own prog-thrashing pull-in (again) in its final third where some of the deeper set basslines and layering reveal their strata most clearly.

The most compelling departure from expectations set here comes with closer “Sphere of Perpetuity”, what I’d consider a psychedelic death/doom metal song per its scene-setting sparseness and the horrified tension it builds in advance. It is markedly different from any other piece on the album and reads as a sort of breakthrough take as they cap off the total experience. At the same time the core idea almost appears to have needed more time, greater expansion beyond its slow-spun intro with a potentially more interesting set of riffs to close the record out with. Working with that dynamic in the future would all but ensure Abyssal Rift would stand out beyond any percieved peers, even if the simpler/standard death metal grooves found on this record probably play better on stage.

Though Abyssal Rift haven’t wildly redefined their already compelling dynamic on this second full-length album they have done well to extend and extract those core machinations into an equally compelling follow-up. The best parts of ‘Relics of Great Ash‘ play into the band’s vision for otherworldly inspiration infesting their rugged atmodeath command, yet I’d been left wanting for more of the bolder strokes found on pieces like “Sphere of Perpetuity” as the band stayed on subject more than expected otherwise. The full listen flows brilliantly, production values are affably dark yet lucid in their capture, and all things considered most folks seeking a cavernous stargazing death whorl should be well-sated herein. A moderately high recommendation.

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