By Andrew Bansal
Texas-based multi-instrumentalist and musical visionary Kevin Price has been creating and compiling richly layered extreme metal music for the past fourteen years, and has finally been able to release this set of compositions under the moniker Unfathomed Of Abyss. Titled ‘Arisen Upon Oblivion’, nearly hour-long offering was released independently on October 8th 2014, and even amidst a vast plethora of new albums put out by bands in a genre that seems to be enjoying a tremendous wave of popularity amongst metalheads all over the planet, Price’ effort does not go unnoticed and offers something unique.
The aptly titled 14-minute epic ‘To Unequal The Balance Of The Cosmos’ lends the album an ominously bleak beginning, but the expertise in the arrangements of multiple layers is there to be heard right from the get-go. As should be the case in a tune of this length, it goes through several variations of moods and tempo, and succeeds in appealing to black metal devouts as well as fans of progressive and symphonic music. The rest of the album succeeds in maintaining the level of grandeur set by this immense openers, with the tunes ‘Within The Glory Of Other Lights’ and ‘To Nothing’ taking it into even more grim territory, and ‘The Malevolence of Existence’s Continuation’ bringing an epic, heavily orchestrated end to proceedings.
This is the kind of album reminiscent of the likes of progressive black metal titans such as Enslaved. Every time you listen to an Enslaved album, there’s something new to be discovered and each listen is a different experience. The same can be said about Unfathomed Of Abyss, which goes to prove that each component and layer is worthwhile, and Kevin Price’ long-winded efforts and deliberation certainly weren’t to no avail. Black, prog and symphonic metal fans, this album is right up your alley and then some.
Rating: 9/10
Release Date: October 8th 2014
Track Listing:
01 – To Unequal the Balance of the Cosmos
02 – The Figment Unadulated
03 – Within the Glory of Other Lights
04 – To Nothing
05 – Within the Void
06 – The Malevolence of Existence’s Continuation
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