For those who discovered Absu with their second album The Sun of Tiphareth, this date was event not to be missed. The band (now reduced to Proscriptor McGovern with Greece's Zemial serving as backing band) is currently in the midst of a European tour celebrating thirty years of this influential work, playing the record in full and in sequence with openers Trivax and Ancient. Quite a marquee, and if Backstage By The Mill wasn't exactly sold-out, the ones who did attend more than made up for the absentees with volume and enthusiasm.
The ritual commenced at 9:20pm sharp, because being occult doesn't preclude punctuality. The album unfolded one track at a time, with Proscriptor on vocals only, having deputized his drum chair to Zemial's Vorskaath who reproduced those thundering parts faithfully. As a frontman, Proscriptor is somewhere between Ronnie James Dio and King Diamond: mystical, magnetic, and thoroughly committed. Every so often he allowed the mask to slip with a quick laugh or a small aside, revealing a human presence inside the demonic persona. Much like the imperfect effects and the exposed strings in vintage horror films, these moments make the atmosphere even stranger.
The music itself is far more varied than the average black metal of the mid nineties. Thrash, death, traditional heavy metal and even psychedelic and progressive elements weave into the fabric of the songs. This broader palette sets Absu apart from the wave of corpse paint outfits that oversaturated the scene three decades ago and keeps these tracks sounding alive rather than trapped in their era.
After more than an hour of intense, combative extreme metal and an encore built from a pair of Zemial signature tunes, Absu left the stage and the audience stepped out into the night, charged enough to carry the ritual to the next town.
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