Eshtadur – From the Abyss

7/10

Metal Archives describes the Colombian trio Eshtadur as a melodic Black Metal band that over the time has changed into a more melodic Death Metal style, a description I find very likely as it almost perfectly describes their latest album “From the Abyss”.

The album starts off with the Behemoth-resembling “Lowborn Bastard” and after that transfers into more of a Death Metal-album in the vein of At the gates and other band in the Gothenburg school of Death Metal, although with a slight hint of Black metal, always lurking in the shadows.

Even if that kind of Death Metal is far from my preferred style, being more into the Florida and Stockholm-scene, I think that Eshtadur does a pretty good job with their, although sometimes very melodic, take on the more easy listening version of Death Metal, their songs containing both furious parts with blast beats as well as the catchy thrash-riffs associated with the Gothenbourg sound.

Overall I find their songs to be very effective compositions with enough variations, tempo changes and surprises, making the tunes grow with each listening and forcing the listener to be on its toes, therefore keeping the interest and their performance and instrumental handling is also top notch!

Actually the only downside with “From the Abyss” is when the enjoyable listening session is quite abruptly disturbed by the overtly melodic chorus line “Bye-bye baby bye-bye” as the utterly strange choice of cover, Firehouse’s old bell ringer “All She Wrote” suddenly kicks in, right in the middle of the album. I guess this is some kind of homage to Eshtadur’s apparent melodic vein, but I am not at all thrilled by such genre exceeding figments.

Luckily, the furiosity of the following song, the records probably, despite its kind of Cradle of Filth-esque chorus, hardest song “Transient Stranger” makes up for this Hair Metal-abomination and after all, it creates an effective contrast.

The rest of the album continues without any further mishaps, bringing on more of the, in Eshtadur’s hands, quite delicate mix of melody and aggression and all in all, I find “From the Abyss” to be a pretty nice acquaintance. I wished they had skipped that cover, at least that they had put it as a bonus song and not in the middle of the album, but with the skip button at hand, or with a bit less narrow minded music taste than mine, Eshtadurs “From the Abyss” sure deserves a recommendation!

Artist: Eshtadur
Title: From the Abyss
Label: Blood Blast Distribution
Date of release: 4/9-20
Playing time: 47:14
Rate: 7/10
Stand out track: Transient Stranger