ABYSMAL DAWN — Leveling the Plane of Existence (review)

ABYSMAL DAWN — Leveling the Plane of Existence album cover Album · 2011 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Leveling the Plane of Existence" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US death metal act Abysmal Dawn. The album was released through Relapse Records in February 2011. The band is a three-piece consisting of Charles Elliott (Vocals, Guitar), Michael Cosio (Bass) and Scott Fuller (Drums, Percussion). Moyses Kolesne (Krisiun) and Kragen Lum (Heathen, Prototype, Psychosis) help out with a couple of guitar solos.

The music on the album is death metal with a technical edge. The playing are generally on a high level, but the relatively technical playing are a means to an end and not technical playing for the sake of it and as a result the tracks are catchy and doesn´t take many spins to tell apart. I´d like to mention tracks like "Pixilated Ignorance", "Perpetual Dormancy" and the strong closing track "The Sleeper Awakens" as some of the highlights on the 10 track, 38:49 minute long album. I like the fact that Abysmal Dawn doesn´t sound neither old school nor "modern" on this album. They successfully come off as timeless to my ears and while I detect influences from acts such as Morbid Angel and Death, those influences are never too apparent. The music on "Leveling the Plane of Existence" strike a good balance between brutality, technical playing and memorable melodic moments. The latter is represented by the many great melodic guitar solos on the album. Abysmal Dawn seamlessly change pace within tracks and there´s also the occasional playing with time signatures. It´s never at the expense of flow or power though. The vocals are brutal growls but they are not completely unintelligible. There are also some higher pitched aggresssive growls thrown in for effectful variation.

The sound production is professional, dark and powerful. A very suiting sound for this kind of music. "Leveling the Plane of Existence" is upon conclusion a great album if you enjoy your death metal with a technical edge (this is not as such tech death), a professional and powerful sound production and high level musicianship. The material are well written too and there´s actually nothing preventing me from giving a 4 star (80%) rating.
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UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I´ll definitely try and get a hold of that one too. I understand the debut is more of a melodic death metal album, while the 2nd is more technical and this one I guess has a bit of both worlds.
J-Man wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Nice review, Jonas! I was really surprised by this one too... awesome album. I actually bought their previous album today on CD, so I intend on giving it some spins in the near future. ;-)

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