Abysmal Winds – Magna Pestilencia

June 21st was the day when Northern Hemisphere turned towards darker times again, but it was also the date for the release of the debut album from Sweden’s Abysmal Winds. It’s entitled Magna Pestilencia and it consists of nine tracks of ‘real death metal’, mainly inspired by American & British death metal sound of the 90s.

The band was founded in 2020 and two years after they released a demo entitled Doom Prayer. Meanwhile, since this was my first encounter with Abysmal Winds, I had to check their demo in order to compare it to the debut full-length. I quickly found out it’s impossible, since the recording quality and whole production part has been improved tremendously. Thus, from the very first sounds of the opening intro “Incantation” it sounds mature and confident. This is mainly due to the fact that all three members; HCF (bass & vocals), A. Necromonger (guitars) and Gaddur (drums) were associated with bands as Avsky, Corpsehammer and Omnizide, are no novice to the scene.

Majority of the songs from Magna Pestilencia are mid-paced and slightly chaotic, bringing this ‘blackish’ dark atmosphere rarely seen on these shores. With a runtime of 31 minutes, Magna Pestilencia never gets boring or repetitive, and that is really the biggest pro of this record.

Unlike this 2-min. short intro “Incantation”, which was dark and with an oppressive atmosphere, the following track “Sacrilegious” is a real old-school Swedish death metal sonic assault with sawing guitars, thrashy riffs, rough growls and hellish drumming. The third track is called “Obliteration” and it is another track that is slightly different from both of its predecessors. It starts at a mid-tempo pace, to increase gradually itnto the straight-forward death metal. “Blood Prison”, one of my favourites, is another track with this old-school Swedish-school death metal, much in the vein of Dismember; quite catchy yet brutal and melancholic. The following ones “World Cadaver” and “A Slumbering God” are kind of similar to each other with the way how they’re composed and built-up. One can say that both tracks lack a bit more of variety. On the other hand, “Ivory Tomb” is a bit more interesting, introducing these groovy parts in the middle of the song, which suits the song very well. “Horrid Visions”, like most of the record, is another mostly a mid-tempo track, which serves as a nice bridge to the closing title track, “Magna Pestilencia”. It ends the record in a great manner, with its harrowing riffs, intense growls, effective groovy passages and plenty of mid-paced beats, as the darkness turns to total.

In conclusion; Magna Pestilencia is not the first of its kind, not groundbreaking, but I appreciate their handling of the instruments, a clear direction when it comes to the songwriting and basically for utilizing new techniques while using the basic foundations and techniques of death metal.

Recommended for those who worship this style already, but also for the fans of Incantation, Grave Miasma, Dismember, Incantation, Sadistic Intent or Nihilist. For further info on this mid-paced, dirty and chaotic death metal assault visit https://ihate.bandcamp.com/album/magna-pestilencia