THE ABYSS STARES BACK # 2…
HESSIAN / PRIMITIVE MAN Review + Stream

The latest in Hypertension Records‘ series of “The Abyss Stares Back” splits, feautring a new song each from Primitive Man and Hessian really keeps the black cloud overhead that they set off with Vol. 1 (Amenra & VVovnds). I think it’s a super cool idea to do a series of records as well as a club/subscription series. Not a lot of labels do that anymore, but Hypertension has killed it with these first two, showcasing some of the best bands and artists in heavy music right now.

Primitive Man starts off the split with a sludgy, dirty, nine and a half minute crusher complete with builds and breaks, as well as plenty of self-loathing to go around. The song starts with a surprisingly melodic repetitive riff that sounds very somber and mournful, until the vocals kick in, and all that is just absolutely laid to waste as the song continues to get uglier and uglier with every downstroke.

5:25 of their crusher shifts from the feedback-laden funeral march, and the song begins to fold in on itself in the best way possible, with a very trance-like riff that trudges along for a punishing two minutes. Until the last minute, when you are abruptly jerked out of the false sense of security that the aforementioned trance-like riff just lulled you into and takes a very violent left turn with a an erratic, chaotic breakdown complete with a killer fast part that will have you d-beat fist pumping yourself into oblivion.

Hessian, on the other hand, continues their aural assault on the senses which established heavily on their last LP Manegarmr. These Hessian heshers from Ghent, Belgium keep their death-n-roll meets metallic hardcore campaign rolling like an unholy steamroller with the 11 and a half minute long crusher of “Inward Dawn”. Hessian do a pretty fantastic job of rolling together Death Metal, Drone and Hardcore/Blackened Crust into one misanthropic, hateful shot to the gut.

Be sure to check out this split if you have any interest in either of these bands, a label doing really cool shit, layouts, great art and just an all around cool vibe. Check out the previous split available, as well as the three remaining splits in the series, including artists such as Scott Kelly of Neurosis, Mathieu Vandekerckhove, Drums Are For Parades, Nihill and Alkerdeel. Head over to Hypertension Records to order the complete package loaded with a bunch of cool extras.