Abyssal Vacuum - Abyssal Vacuum (2025)Release ID: 59819

Abyssal Vacuum - Abyssal Vacuum (2025) Cover
Vinny Vinny / May 29, 2025 / Comments 0 / 0

Encyclopaedia Metallum lists the themes for French black metallers, Abyssal Vacuum as being ‘Occultism’ (promising) and ‘Caves’ (oh, right). With a slew of EP releases that are all titled with Roman numerals, their debut album has taken eight years to arrive – or VIII years to be exact. The opening track ‘Echo 43N-40E’ is a distinct enough start to the record. Male choral vocals haunt the mid-paced black metal which is punctuated by shouts and death/doom vocals to boot. This song naming convention holds a degree of mystery. All are coordinates ‘pinpointing a particular locale doubtlessly portending considerable occult energy…’ Or perhaps just a cave or two of course.

The guttural aspects of the vocals reverberate in your eardrums and those choral sections and shouts have a primitive edge about them, with the latter invoking some sense of occultists gathered in caves (of course). In all seriousness, aspects of the record do genuinely have a sense of deep underground or certainly hidden spaces where dark things are practised. The tremolos echo back from what sound like vast, almost fathomless spaces; sheer cliffs almost whose walls allow the sound to build constantly.

There’s an abundance of melodic yet mining leads alongside the riffs that cascade over solid percussive performances. These spurts of melody give a sense of light in an otherwise densely murky sounding album. Within all this atmosphere, there is still a well-structured drumming element that holds a welcome focus in the mix throughout the album. Abyssal Vacuum are a band playing music with atmosphere added as an additional layer, as opposed to a group of individuals starting with atmospheres as the dominant force in their sound and then playing some music as an afterthought. The album has an intense focus on form and composition, a fixation on sensible arrangement even. It is a mature and very enriching experience to listen to. The lavish layers that are present manage to compliment rather than smother the darker aspects of the sound. Clearly accomplished musicians over an extended format as well as over Eps, I hope the confidence of Abyssal Vacuum grows from this outing onwards.


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Release info

Release Site Rating

Ratings: 1 | Reviews: 1

4.0

Release Clan Rating

Ratings: 1 | Reviews: 1

4.0

Cover Site Rating

Ratings: 1

3.5

Cover Clan Rating

Ratings: 1

3.5
Release
Abyssal Vacuum
Year
2025
Format
Album
Clans
The North
Genres
Black Metal
Sub-Genres

Black Metal (conventional)

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Atmospheric Black Metal

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Abyssal Vacuum chronology