Review by Sonny for Abigor - Totschläger (A Saintslayer's Songbook) (2020)

Abigor have mostly passed me by to be honest and what I have heard hasn't really resonated with me in the same way as it seems to have with a great many black metal fans. Then again, I haven't exactly gone out of my way to get into the Austrians' discography, so I was determined to do so with this 2020 full-length. After an initial couple listens it was apparent that this was going to take a lot of concentration as there is a huge amount to unpack during Totschläger's fifty minute runtime. This is a dense sounding album with layered guitar work and epic songwriting that has a very dramatic feel to it. The sound is exceptionally clear and the multifarous facets are allowed equal chance to shine, so technically all seems well. Whilst the songs don't all sound the same, they do have a similar style, dense, complex and with a degree of dissonance which seems to sit somewhere between latter-era Emperor and Deathspell Omega. I must confess, it sometimes feels a bit overwhelming, as if the sheer density and technical ambition of the tracks swamps my ability to take it all in and ultimately ends up washing over me, as sometimes happens with tracks that employ a lot of dissonance and heavy layering, overwhelming my ability to enjoy them fully. This is not a criticism per se, as I applaud their ability to produce such technically gifted work, rather it is an acknowledgement that it may possibly be beyond my own ability to properly appreciate it. Even I can tell that this is a band who have been around the block a good few times and who are consummately at ease with what they are trying to achieve.

I realise I may have made this sound like some technical snoozefest, but that is definitely not the case and sometimes an absolutely killer riff will rise to the surface, such as the one that closes out the album towards the end of Terrorkommando Eligos. There are also some demented-sounding solos which is always something I can get behind. Overall, though, I think I have to chalk this up as an album I appreciate and respect a lot more than I actually enjoyed, but I can definitely tell why others who may be more inclined to this style of black metal would derive a huge amount from it.