Strigoi hysteria

StrigoiAbandon All Faith

Nuclear Blast
22nd November, 2019
8
Doomed Death

Abandon All Faith is the debut album from British death-doom metal band Strigoi.

MORE: DOWNLOAD AUSTRALIA: Unveils Colossal 2020 Line-Up REVIEWS: REFUSED: War Music // DEEZ NUTS: You Got Me F****d Up // DESPISED ICON: Purgatory // LACUNA COIL: Black Anima

A debut it may be, but it arrives as an heir of sorts to Vallenfyre, the three-album memorial project of Paradise Lost’s Greg Mackintosh. Having completed Vallenfyre’s third album, Mackintosh and bassist Chris Casket reformed as Strigoi to continue their musical collaboration. Strigoi inherits the majestic doom of Paradise Lost, while retaining the element of raw and angry social critique.



Opening with the sinister grind of the ominous instrumental The Rising Horde, Abandon All Faith moves in a stately progression into Phantom, expounding the depths of doom-infused death metal. One of the most striking aspects of Strigoi’s sound is the sense of unease. It is tangible and intense, particularly on tracks such as Seven Crowns and Iniquitous Rage that marry jarring and strangely melodic elements.

This is an album that is dark, smouldering and grand, while at the same time aggressive, energetic, and destabilising.

The harsh and hostile, even chaotic sentiments are pushed to the fore in Parasite, which after a solemn intro builds into a truly bizarre and unsettling track. Abandon All Faith is punctuated with shorter, faster tracks such as the abrasively frenetic song Throne Of Disgrace, which feeds the album’s pace with claw-like energy. Closing with its title track, Abandon All Faith returns to Strigoi’s death-doom centre and introduces some orchestration which renders the sound ever so slightly gothic, and speaks to the broadly antireligious sentiment of album.

The directions in which Strigoi seeks to take the Mackintosh-Casket musical partnership are enticing and one hopes that this project will continue to expand on the death-doom confluence evident on Abandon All Faith. This is an album that is dark, smouldering and grand, while at the same time aggressive, energetic, and destabilising. Despite so many seemingly juxtaposed elements, Strigoi have retained a sense of overall musical coherency on Abandon All Faith and even considering the hostility of its themes, the album is almost alarmingly easy to listen to.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Seven Crowns, Parasite, Abandon All Faith
STICK THIS NEXT TO: Paradise Lost, Vallenfyre, Incantation




Latest News

MORE MUST READS >