Baron – Beneath the Blazing Abyss

Band: Baron
Title: Beneath the Blazing Abyss
Label: Transcending Obscurity Records
Release date: April 26th, 2024
Country: Finland
Format reviewed: High-Quality Digital Recording

This is the debut full-length album by the Finnish Death Metal band Baron, after releasing two EPs a few years ago; and, damn!, these 44 minutes are really intense! The album distills wildness, torment and violence, all wrapped in darkness and a gloomy atmosphere.

The tempos vary between raging Death Metal and slow Doom parts, and I think this is what gives this album its special entity. The guitar work is massive, it fills everything, it crushes and destroys anyone who dares to stay around… The opener “Primordial Possession” is a good example of this, alternating raw Death Metal riffs glued to overwhelming drums, with slow Doom tempos, and vocals being highly aggressive all the time. And, as even in the most crazy riot, there’s a place for beauty, like the last minute of “At the Dawn of Damnation”, one of the two tracks that clocks over nine minutes. An acoustic guitar untangles a calming melody, and it feels good.

Let me talk to you about the aggressive and ominous sound in this album, ‘cause this is the predominant. As I said before, guitars take control and play furious riffs, with an obscure tone, carried around by the destructive and mercilessly smashed drums. And, what to say about vocals: I’m dead with the varied range of “singing” present here, deep growls, tormented screams, wow… I don’t know if it’s only one guy doing it all, but anyway, what a brutal vocal work!

“Incinerated Evil” is a track made of pure fire, where riffs follow one another in a wicked way, marking a tortuous cadence and pushed forward by unstoppable drums, rolling and thundering. And vocals sound here like ascending directly from hell, no mercy, no salvation… I looove it!

Maybe it’s when the songs go into a Death/Doom path that the sound is more sinister, I’d say even with a cathartic approach: like cleansing the tortured souls, specially the second long song, “Bound to the Funeral Pyres”. Here, the intensity almost hurts, right from the beginning the ambient is deep, obscure, with an echoing guitar as if it was played inside a cavern, and clean choirs that give a surreal touch. And when the growls enter, the double bass pedals mark the pace and guitars continue building that sinister environment. After a while, the song turns into pure Death Metal madness, with a short and evil guitar solo included. All is leading us to the doomest part of the song, where vocals are pure agonic guttural sounds, oh ohhh this is sooo intense!! The song ends the same way it started, as if it was a circular trip, maybe there’s no beginning and no end, all is blurred…

Well, this is an impressive album by a Finnish band that has been on the Metal scene for almost ten years. I think we’ll listen to great things coming from them in the future. For me this one is 9/10 Sílvia

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9/10 Epic Storm
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