UMUR
"Dawn of Inhumanity" is the 6th full-length studio album by US death metal act Abscess. The album was released through Tyrant Syndicate Productions in March 2010. It´s the successor to "Horrorhammer" from 2007 and ended up being the last album released under the Abscess monicker, before most of the band members (minus guitarist/vocalist Clint Bower) opted to revive their former band Autopsy. Abscess had never been as successful or as recognised as Autopsy were in the late 80s/early 90s, and it made sense to discontinue Abscess and continue under the Autopsy monicker instead. But that´s of course getting a little ahead of the timeline...
...stylistically "Dawn of Inhumanity" continues the filthy horror/gore themed old school death metal style with hardcore punk and doom metal elements which Abscess have played since day one. Little to nothing has changed but Abscess don´t really aim at taking huge development steps or changing their core style too much. This is all about old school death metal authenticity and delivering the music in the most filthy organic way possible, and Abscess arguably succeed in doing just that. While the band have stagnated a bit when it comes to the songwriting, there are some experiments here and there, and the organic playing style can even sometimes feel like the band are improvising some parts (which they probably don´t, but it´s an example of how loose and organic the album feels).
"Dawn of Inhumanity" features a raw, organic, and stripped down sound production, which is decent enough, but not really great sounding. Especially the drums feature a thin and powerless sound which my ears don´t agree with. A more heavy bottom production and more powerful sounding drums could probably have made the listening experience a lot more enjoyable. The musicianship are as always strong and Chris Reifert´s filthy expressive growls as much an aquired taste as ever (personally I love them), so all in all "Dawn of Inhumanity" is another Abscess album which sounds pretty much like the rest of them. It´s not a bad album by any means, but I´m sure there aren´t many fans who mourn that this would be the last Abscess album and that most of the lineup revived Autopsy instead. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.